this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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In an obscure post, a Mozilla MLE announced a ClawBot ripoff specifically targeted at at tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, roofers, handymen) for help with administrative tasks like scheduling, explaining invoices, etc.

What is their project, ClawBolt? According to their website, it's a compilation of

  • A flaky AI agent you run on your computer
  • A Telegram chatbot to remotely control it
  • A connection to OpenAI to parse all of it

This sounds like a dangerous project to target at tradesmen, doesn't it? AI marketing tells people that AI is smart and safe and powerful when it is anything but. If Facebook's top AI safety genius nearly destroyed her own email inbox, how will a plumber fare?

One of the features of ClawBolt is "memory," something that will store and possibly corrupt questions and answers like "What's Mrs. Johnson's address?" and "My hourly rate is $95".

But it gets worse: ClawBolt documentation says it can scan images to "get help identifying fixtures"

Remember the memes making fun of AI's inability to make wiring diagrams?

I can only imagine how bad this could make things for tradespeople - in addition to violating customer privacy, getting gaslit by a non-deterministic "memory" machine, and potentially breaking their work computers.

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[–] oasis@piefed.social -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So it's not an AI issue then? It's yours countrys inability to certify electricians and plumbers properly.

Someone that's dangerous without AI is dangerous with AI. Someone that knows how to do their job isn't dangerous with AI.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, it's overconfidence in abilities.

[–] oasis@piefed.social -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Overconfidence in what exactly, invoices? Who gives a shit! Stop acting like improper invoices or some other admin shit is in anyway dangerous. This is just fear mongering

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Who said anything about invoices? You're not even making a coherent argument anymore.