Thanks AI!

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@borkdude @aburka Rich is always on point.
@robdaemon @borkdude seriously this might push me to write more clojure
@aburka @borkdude I quite enjoy Clojure, when I can get away from Java interop. The interop is well done, but I always have to look it up
@robdaemon @borkdude I started learning it while it was being designed, which was fun. Hung out on IRC a bunch. I landed there after the first or second failed attempt at learning Haskell.
@borkdude not bad but could use more cussing

@borkdude I'm pasting what Rich wrote here for people who don't want to open the GitHub link

Thanks AI!

I got this email:

Rich,

Your creation of Clojure ...

sycophantic blather worthy of a third grader's homework assignment to write a letter to a public figure you don't know, using sources you don't understand, to express an emotion unfelt, with no intention whatsoever

Claude Haiku 4.5

Ah, Christmas time. That time of year when our hearts are warmed by the best wishes of an idiot robot. All tingly from the experience, and in the holiday spirit, I thought I'd write my own letter of thanks to those bringing us this next generation of 'AI'.

Dear 'AI' purveyors,

How shall I thank thee, let me count the ways:

Should I thank you for pirating the entire historical output of creative humanity and then asserting ownership of your loot?

For destroying education?

For raising utility rates and killing the environment?

For wasting vast quantities of developer time trying to coax some useful output from your BS generators, time which could instead be used communicating to interns and entry-level devs who, being actually intelligent, could learn from what they are told, and maintain what they make?

For eliminating entry-level jobs, and thus the path to experience, ensuring future generations of unskilled, unemployable people?

For giving me a fake person to talk to when I need support instead of an actual person who understands what I'm saying, can help me faster, and has a chance of caring?

For replacing search results with summary BS?

For providing the tools to fill the internet with slop, making actual human content almost impossible to find?

For enticing CEOs with the promise to save some fraction of a percent on personnel costs, not actually be any faster, cutting off their future labor pool while only experiencing a modest to severe reduction in product quality, integrity and customer satisfaction (tradeoffs they are apparently eager to make)?

For replacing musical expression with the sounds of robot parrots chirping?

For adding an 'AI' feature to every flipping thing, most such features requiring a deep invasion of privacy?

For running the second biggest and most damaging con of this century (running hard at first)?

I think not.

This email was a reminder that agentic 'AI' is sure to flood the remainder of human communication channels with BS, swamping many services, and making every interaction with people not in the same room suspect, and filtering it a time-consuming waste, forever.

When did we stop considering things failures that create more problems than they solve?

Rich

@borkdude i read lately something about we all wanted ai to replace us in all the boring work and what we got was ai trying to replace us in all creative stuff so that we have to do all the boring stuff our selfs. What a revolution.

Rich says exactly what i think all the time about those slop mashines

@borkdude I made the mistake of reading the comments, specifically nukeop's which boiled my blood. Imagine saying a human isn't allowed to have opinions about the machines and the humans running the machines who are actively ruining the world for profit. Nobody said he couldn't use it. JFC.

I hate how infectious tech bro hyperbole is to the lower earning creator.

@SusanPotter @borkdude I did the same, and same.

This is literally the same dude that will say tech is not political, after spewing precisely all the right wing talking points in a conversation about AI.

@vie @SusanPotter @borkdude the way I see it, these folks are taking the criticism personally, so they just replied from feeling offended. This is the new Vim vs Emacs. I hope the consequences are equally concerning in the long term, but the more I see folks releasing stuff that “seems to work but I didn’t review” the more pessimistic I get
@RosaCtrl I can see that but it reads a little like "you are not permitted to critique the machines" which is a form of techno fascism. I must speak out against that angle and ensure people do not feel afraid to communicate their opinions. "I like using AI" is fine to communicate. Saying "I like using AI so STFU" is not.
@RosaCtrl I might be being touchy given the slide into fascism that my home country is embarking on right now but it is essential boundaries are maintained.

@RosaCtrl @SusanPotter @borkdude Unless I'm missing some politically charged perspective on the vim vs emacs conversations, I think the comparison misses this side of AI, which for me seems key here.

It's easy to brush off a lot of the issues around AI if you're right-wing and believe it's everyone-for-themself, try harder, pull yourself by your boostraps, don't believe in global warming, don't understand how all of this disproportionately affects minorities (or don't care because it's their fault they're poor), etc.

@vie @SusanPotter @borkdude to be honest, I haven’t even think of the techno fascist angle. Based on my discussions with enthusiasts I’ve only seen a strong reaction because nobody wants to be blamed for the consequences of those things they like, which is a selfish position to say the least. But I’ll pay more attention, last thing I wanna do is to excuse a techno fascist
@RosaCtrl @vie @SusanPotter @borkdude What did we expect from someone whose latest Gist is literally some 4chan userscript?
@soc @RosaCtrl @vie @borkdude I thought you were overexaggerating and then I looked...
@borkdude that's a well written rant. But the comment thread underneath it is in desperate need of aggressive moderation.
@BuschnicK I think it just got moderated :)
@borkdude I've always thought that LLM coding tools go against the principles of Clojure, and this feels like confirmation.
@borkdude
that is a gratifying result right there.
@borkdude I don't know who Rich Hickey is, but if its posted on GitHub its probably not worth reading. Is there an option to read this on a more user-friendly platform?
@tyil Rich Hickey developed Clojure and incorporated efficient immutable data structures developed by Chris Okasaki at Columbia University.
It's some of the best open source software that we have so far in this millennium. You're welcome, you ignoramus.
@ohmrun I must say it is thrilling to start the new year with some nobody on Fedi who just cannot stop himself being a cuck for companies calling other people ignoramus. I hope you make can make this new year count!
@tyil
You're right, I was rude, I'm sorry.