Lars SørensenFeb 23
tante

At least 70% of things I read about people doing with "AI" assistants like "Open Claw" are basically things people have been doing with deterministic, secure tools like Home Assistant for years.

Oh you can tell your bot to dim the lights via WhatsApp chat? Welcome to 2015!

Feb 23 at 1:47pmWeb
Show threadCassandrichFeb 23
@tante They want it to feel like a personal secretary who can't say no, not like a CLI. That's the whole appeal to them.
Show threadMichael Downey 🧢Feb 23

@dalias @tante

I think a better term may be "latent human desire for slavery"

Show threadCassandrichFeb 23

@downey @tante Yes, though I'm not sure what "latent" implies here. I don't think it's something intrinsic - most of us find the idea repulsive, and this is probably part of our visceral reaction to "AI" "assistants". Rather, I think people who've been indoctrinated into hierarchical power structures where they observe their bosses "getting to" behave like that develop it as an aspiration. And for the bosses, the appeal is that the thing they're giving orders to like it's a person can't say no to them and can't be secretly trying to achieve goals at odds with them(*).

(*) LMAO that's exactly what all the "AI" chatbots are doing when they scoop up all your trade secrets for Google and Microsoft to exploit.

Show threadd@nny disc@ mc²Feb 23
@dalias @downey @tante this is a very perceptive analysis of language
Show threadzrbFeb 23
@dalias @downey @tante reminds me of this post https://social.treehouse.systems/@jnkrtech/116083770527548518
jnkrtech (@[email protected])

This is something that probably sounds obvious to some folks and unhinged to others, but I think it’s worth saying anyway: “workers who don’t adopt AI will get left behind” is right-wing propaganda. It’s more than just a surface-level advertising message. It makes the unstated assumption that workers are all in a state of conflict, racing against one another in competition for acceptable employment. This is the literal opposite of class consciousness! All workers should be aiming for a world where we don’t have to fight each other to earn a chance at a decent life.

Treehouse Mastodon
Show threadzrbFeb 23

@dalias @downey @tante big social pressure in the workplace, for the people who actually do the technical work, for the "progression of their career" to be moving upward in the management hierarchy and move from technical to administration

as if management is inherently more important than doing the actual thing the company does

Show threadrakooFeb 25
@dalias @downey @tante

And then you realize they have all watched movies where the assistant is a woman, has the voice of a woman, has the name of a woman
Show threadCassandrichFeb 23

@downey @tante Another take on this concept:

"AI" "assistants" are crack for crackers.

Show threadErin Church  🏳️‍⚧️Feb 23
@downey I don't know that it's so universal as that. It does seem to be mostly other white people who are enthusiastic about AI in this particular way.
Show threadhagenFeb 23
@tante that’s one part i also fundamentally not get. even if you want to use llms (which i argue you shouldn’t) – just ask them to write the home assistant yaml files or something similar. it’s by no means great but at least you only have to get it working once and then it won’t change. why roll the dice over and over again?
Show threadfh0Feb 23
@hagen the hope is to have a general personal assistant that simply does all the stuff you tell them, without first figuring out what other software you need to run it and a good place to integrate something somewhere
Show threadhagenFeb 23
@fh0 sure but that’s not even how actual personal assistants work.
Show threadfh0Feb 23
@hagen I don't think that matters, it's the reason why people use it instead of integrating it in homeassistant (your original question)
Show threadSebastian LaubeFeb 23

@tante The interesting thing about your observation is convinience.

You don't have to buy a device that you have to assemble, setup with absolutely unfamiliar software and configure all the things your self.

Now they set up one or two user accounts and will be guided quite comfortably through the setup.

This reveals the weakness FOSS always had: the lack of user experience.

I don't like these agents, but I wish we get motivated by this to do better UX in FOSS.

Show threadchop wood, carry waterFeb 23
@tante but, of course, now home assistant is pushing "local" ai
Show threadSkjeggtrollFeb 23

@tante

We used to just call it "automation."

Show threadHelen LHFeb 23
@tante "How can we do this thing we could do already with way more compute so we can prop up the failing fossil fuel industry"
Show threadNicole ParsonsFeb 23

@Research_FTW @tante

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-oil-industry-donations

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/02/tva-how-trumps-appointees-derailed-a-clean-energy-future-at-the-nations-largest-public-utility/

AI is frying the planet
https://jacobin.com/2025/08/google-porat-climate-fossil-fuels

https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/11/the-koch-network-is-pushing-trump-to-accelerate-ai-documents-show/

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5711639-trump-data-centers-consumer-impact/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/utilities-overestimating-ai-boom-data-centers-fossil-fuel-energy-usage-bills/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/19/data-centers-power-grid-ai/

https://www.desmog.com/2025/04/22/ai-energy-demand-can-keep-fossil-fuels-alive-tech-backers-promise-worlds-two-biggest-oil-producers/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/03/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/crashing-the-economy-to-destroy-the-planet/

https://www.carbonbrief.org/ai-five-charts-that-put-data-centre-energy-use-and-emissions-into-context/

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/

https://grist.org/energy/data-centers-natural-gas-methane-behind-the-meter/

https://time.com/7371825/trump-data-center-ai-backlash-ai-america-china/

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-energy-industry-ai-fossil-fuels-pittsburgh-summit/

https://www.ft.com/content/0c9ec7b1-f9a6-41db-9493-3ff09f6943ef
https://archive.ph/GVK2Y

Trump to Big Oil Execs: Give Me $1 Billion and I'll Help You Wreck the Planet | Common Dreams

"You won't read a more important story today," said one commentator. "Trump is willing to literally destroy the planet for $1 billion."

Common Dreams
Show threadCogito ergo mecagoendiosFeb 23
@tante The sad truth is that what drives adoption of a technology is not its technical design but social dynamics. A lot of these people are embracing AI not because they could not automate default email templates ten years ago, but because ten years ago they couldn't be arsed to find out if it was even possible, whereas nowadays they all of a sudden feel pressured to do it because everyone else is doing it. And what bothers me the most is they will then claim that it was impossible 10 years ago
Show threadCogito ergo mecagoendiosFeb 23

@tante Someone oughta make an AI agent coffee pot that you can text "BREW" when you want it to make you a cup 😂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper_Text_Coffee_Pot_Control_Protocol

Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol - Wikipedia

Show threadEric EggertFeb 23

@tante But it is so much more exciting if it only works 50% of the time and there is a 1% chance that it erases your hard drive!

So much entertainment value!

Show threadGregFeb 23
@tante I WAS THERE WHEN IFTTT WAS NEW! I WAS THERE!!!
Show threadTroyFeb 23
@tante how else will I be able to sum a column in a spreadsheet? Literally something one of the claw bros were bragging about
Show threadcraignicolFeb 23
@tante yes, but sometimes it doesn't work. And sometimes it leaks your passwords. Progress!
Show threadLucas DohmenFeb 24
@tante Also: Why would you do that via text message instead of pressing a button (either a physical one, or a button on your phone) or via voice assistant. Chat seems completely inefficient to me…