Mark Cuban said the rise in AI-generated cold emails has become so overwhelming that he’s now using his own AI to fight back.
On Thursday, the billionaire investor said on the live-streaming technology show TBPN that he recently bought a Mac Mini to handle the ever-increasing volume of incoming messages.
“I do what everyone else does: I bought a Mac Mini,” Cuban said.
In addition to AI-generated emails, he said unnecessary email subscriptions are a problem.
“It’s not like a cold email because it’s obvious,” Cuban said. “It’s people signing me up for shitty shows.”
His solution, he said, is to use AI to automate the cleanup.
Cuban said he trained the system to take advantage of Gmail’s built-in unsubscribe button, effectively creating a loop where the AI filters out the noise it generates.
“You just have to train yourself to hit the unsubscribe button,” he says. “Okay, so we’re just going to review that and all the other shit, so it’s still a work in progress, but at least we have a way to go.”
Cuban did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
“Trial and error stage”
This approach reflects a broader shift in how executives are using AI to manage their inboxes.
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said he uses Microsoft’s Copilot for “almost all” of his high-stakes messages, and executives in industries from technology to retail recently told Business Insider’s Ana Altchek that they rely on AI for day-to-day communications and document reviews.
Cuban explained that it’s a trial-and-error phase at the moment, with people testing what works and what doesn’t.
“We’re in a trial-and-error phase where people are like, ‘Let’s try it and see what happens,'” he said, adding that response rates are likely to drop as more AI-generated messages flood inboxes.
“Then they’ll get bored and then they’ll decline,” he added.