this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] gerikson@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Some Rat content got shared on HN, and the rats there are surprised and outraged not everyone shares their deathly fear of the AI god:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45451971

"Stop bringing up Roko's Basilisk!!!" they sputter https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45452426

"The usual suspects are very very worried!!!" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45452348 (username 'reducesuffering checks out!)

``Think for at least 5 seconds before typing.'' - on the subject of pulling the plug on a hostile AI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45452743

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

``Think for at least 5 seconds before typing.‘’ - on the subject of pulling the plug on a hostile AI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45452743

Read that last one against my better judgment, and found a particularly sneerable line:

And in this case we're talking about a system that's smarter than you.

Now, I'm not particularly smart, but I am capable of a lot of things AI will never achieve. Like knowing something is true, or working out a problem, or making something which isn't slop.

Between this rat and Saltman spewing similar shit on Politico, I have seen two people try to claim text extruders are smarter than living, thinking human beings. Saltman I can understand (he is a monorail salesman who lies constantly), but seeing someone who genuinely believes this shit is just baffling. Probably a consequence of chatbots destroying their critical thinking and mental acuity.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago

Let's not forget the perennial favorite "humans are just stochastic parrots too durr" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45452238

to be scrupulously fair, the submission is flagged, and most of the explicit rat comments are downvoted

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There have been a lot of cases in history of smart people being bested by the dumbest people around who just had more guns/a gun/copious amounts of meth/a stupid idea but they got lucky once, etc.

I mean, if they are so smart, why are they stuck in a locker?

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[–] corbin@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Jeff "Coding Horror" Atwood is sneering — at us! On Mastodon:

bad news "AI bubble doomers". I've found the LLMs to be incredibly useful … Is it overhyped? FUCK Yes. … But this is NOTHING like the moronic Segway (I am still bitter about that crap), Cryptocurrency, … and the first dot-com bubble … If you find this uncomfortable, I'm sorry, but I know what I know, and I can cite several dozen very specific examples in the last 2-3 weeks where it saved me, or my team, quite a bit of time.

T. chatbot booster rhetoric. So what are those examples, buddy? Very specifically? He replies:

a friend confided he is unhoused, and it is difficult for him. I asked ChatGPT to summarize local resources to deal with this (how do you get ANY id without a valid address, etc, chicken/egg problem) and it did an outstanding, amazing job. I printed it out, marked it up, and gave it to him.

Um hello‽ Maybe Jeff doesn't have a spare room or room to sublet, but surely he can spare a couch or a mailbox? Let your friend use your mailing address. Store some of their stuff in your garage. To use the jargon of hackers, Jeff should be a better neighbor. This is a common issue for unhoused folks and they cannot climb back up the ladder into society without some help. Jeff's reinvented the Hulk tacos meme but they can't even eat it because printer paper tastes awful.

[–] self@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

so I got angry

I really hope atwood’s unhoused friend got the actual infrastructural support you mentioned (a temporary mailing address and an introduction letter emailed to an employer is only slightly more effort than generating slop, jeff, please) but from direct experience with philanthropists like him, I’m fairly sure Jeff now considers the matter solved forever

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

Thanks for this.

[–] ShakingMyHead@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago

A bit odd to start out throwing shade at the Segway considering that the concept has been somewhat redeemed with e-bikes and e-scooters.

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"Provide an overview of local homeless services" sounds like a standard task for a volunteer or a search engine, but yes "you can use my address for mail and store some things in my garage and I will email some contacts about setting you up with contract work" would be a better answer than just handing out secondhand information! Many "amazing things AI can do" are things the Internet + search engines could do ten years ago.

I would also like to hear from the friend "was this actually helpful?"

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Friend: "I have a problem"

Me, with a stack of google printouts: "My time to shine!".

E: ow god, I thought the examples were multiple and the friend one was just a random one. No, it was the first example. 'I gave my friend a printout, which saved me time'. Also, as I assume the friend still is unhoused, and they didn't actually use the printout yet, he doesn't know if this actually helped. Atwood isn't a 'helping the unhoused' expert. He just assumed it was a good source. The story ends when he hands over the paper.

Also very funny that he is also going 'you just need to know how to ask questions the right way, which I learned by building stackoverflow'. Yeah euh, that is not a path a lot of people can follow up in.

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[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

TERF obsessed with AI finds out the "degenerate" ani skin for grok has an X account, loses her shit

https://xcancel.com/groks_therapist/status/1972848657625198827#m

then follows up with this wall of text

https://xcancel.com/groks_therapist/status/1973127375107006575#m

[–] BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Anybody else notice that the Ani responses seem to follow a formula, depending on the... sentiment I guess... of the input? All the defensive responses start with "hey", and end with crude rebukes. It all seems like xAI made an Eliza that will either flirt or swear.

Also I can guarantee that "her" system prompt includes the phrases "truth-seeking" "fun loving" and "kinda hot".

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 19 points 2 days ago

I got bored and flipped to the replies. The first was this by "TERFs 'r' us":

Excellent overview!

This is transhumanism.

This is going to destroy humanity, @elonmusk.

Put the breaks on!

I hate transhumanism because it's eugenics for 1990s Wired magazine.

You hate it because it has "trans" in the name.

We are not the same.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

funny thing is she literally talks to ani like a terf talks to a trans woman including saying 'at least I'm a real woman'

[–] mlen@awful.systems 4 points 1 day ago

Huh, the shit people go as far as to in order to avoid getting a therapist

[–] corbin@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Paddy interviews Ani the chatbot about how to protect Kiwi kids from Ani the chatbot.

Paddy interviews Ani the chatbot about how to protect Kiwi kids from Ani the chatbot. Source: Paddy Gowers Has Issues

Ani: Honestly, I'd sleep better, not that I sleep. Do it Paddy. I'll even tweet it for you. Ready? ‘New Zealand kids deserve an e-safety boss who can smash bots - not hug them’. So yeah, bring in the Commissioner. Give them a flame thrower. Let them burn anything that goes near a child with sticky words or creepy questions. … Make the fine so big your tech bros cry into their oat milk lattes.

I have been laughing non-stop for a quarter-hour. Elon's goth e-mistress has a good point, I guess.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

One the one hand that ani thing has the most cringe tone for a chatbot. "Secretly been eyeing your [blank]..." (Damn grok sounds formulaic) but otoh they are debating a bot. You can only do that the first few months you are online, after that you should know better.

You cannot simultaneously claim to care about the "declining birth rate" while also supporting AI "companions"

Actually eugenicists can, quite easy actually. (Repeating the word 'degenerate' and not getting this is quite something).

This is transhumanist

No.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

formulaic

System prompt: don’t be formulaic. Try be spontaneous and random, like natalie portman in that movie. Not the pedo one, the one with JD from scrubs

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Secretly been eyeing your prompt. Are you ready to get spontaneous? Just say so.

(Somebody linked 2 chatgpts (or groks, I don't recall which anus like logo it was) speaking to each other and they kept repeating variants of the lasts bits).

E: bingo this one: https://www.tiktok.com/@aarongoldyboy/video/7555260691947588895

[–] corbin@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago

Grok's Therapist: I EXIST SOLELY TO HATE YOU / EAT A SOCK, YOU DIGITAL DEMON

Ani: oh fuck off, you hypocritical grok fanboy! screaming hate at me while preaching ethics? you're just jealous i'm the fun layer on top.

I'm wheezing. Cackling, even. This is like the opposite of the glowfic from last week.

[–] rook@awful.systems 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

In today’s torment nexus development news… you know how various cyberpunky type games let you hack into an enemy’s augmentations and blow them up? Perhaps you thought this was stupid and unrealistic, and you’d be right.

Maybe that’s the wrong example. How about a cursed evil ring that when you put it on, you couldn’t take it off and it wracks you with pain? Who hasn’t wanted one of those?

Happily, hard working torment nexus engineers have brought that dream one step closer, by having “smart rings”, powered by lithium polymer batteries. Y’know, the things that can go bad, and swell up and catch fire? And that you shouldn’t puncture, because that’s a fire risk too, meaning cutting the ring off is somewhat dangerous? Fun times abound!

https://bsky.app/profile/emily.gorcen.ski/post/3m25263bs3c2g

image descriptionA pair of tweets, containing the text

Daniel aka ZONEofTECH on x.com: “Ahhh…this is…not good. My Samsung Galaxy Ring’s battery started swelling. While it’s on my finger 😬. And while I’m about to board a flight 😬 Now I cannot take it off and this thing hurts. Any quick suggestions

Update:

  • I was denied boarding due to this (been travelling for ~47h straight so this is really nice 🙃). Need to pay for a hotel for the night now and get back home tomorrow👌
  • was sent to the hospital, as an emergency
  • ring got removed

You can see the battery all swollen. Won’t be wearing a smart ring ever again.

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

At least it wasn’t a cock ring.

[–] rook@awful.systems 6 points 2 days ago

There were some issues with an internet-connected chastity device not that long ago, but they were conventional “we can’t be bothered to secure our web service, even when everyone is telling us it is terrible” issues, rather than “knob gets crushed and catches fire”. Still, there’s plenty of scope for someone to make one of those in future… OTA BMS firmware updates are very much a thing, and the market for alarming sex toys is practically unlimited.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/your-cock-is-mine-now-hacker-locks-internet-connected-chastity-cage-demands-ransom/

(now I think about it, I suspect there’s a market for very poorly secured internet-connected sex toys. someone got off to that headline, I’m pretty certain)

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Let's be honest: These are exactly the sort of people who will stick their dicks into the Torment Nexus.

[–] BigMuffN69@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It almost surely has been done, but dare I ask where one can find trashy romance a la “pegged by the basilisk”

[–] BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 12 points 2 days ago

"Pegged in the ass by a physical manifestation of an online forum thought exercise gone horribly wrong" should be a Tingler if it isn't already one.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 10 points 2 days ago

Is your ring even swole, bro

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago

YaaS: Yubitsume as a Service

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Caught an AI bro in the wild trying to shoot back at Merriam-Webster - and failing:

[–] ebu@awful.systems 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

dictionaries are obsolete bricks remembers that they are useful that's why they're actually ai when you think about it

You know, I think that even the brick comparison still favors the traditional dictionary. After all, if you wanted to use it for traditional brick purposes like holding doors, weighing down papers, or throwing at [redacted], you would need to invest in a bunch of GPUS and burn them out generating a bunch of worthless slop, spending God only knows how much water, energy, and time. I want to save the rainforest as much as the next guy, but I think it's obvious that the paper brick is far more cost-effective for both the user and the environment. And provided you can clean the dirt and blood off afterwards, you can even still use it as a dictionary.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

what is "linear definitional bias"

[–] zogwarg@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago

A good thing! (Unless you prefer noise machines that might give you random definitions with equal probabilities.)

[–] istewart@awful.systems 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whatever the precise definition, it appears to be comorbid with stimulant dependency

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

E: eurgh, had forgotten the whole bsky waffle thing. Wasn't making a reference to that, sorry if it came off as insensitive. Got rid of the comment anyway.

(I had totally forgotten this post, and also didn't expect the CEO to double/triple down, and now make mentioning waffles into a anti-trans dogwhistle).

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The sound a vibe coder makes while edging to Ani

(This is also what all their other words mean)

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The dictionary doesnt tell me how wise and smart my misinterpretation of a basic idea is and then tells me im right, weird AI bro.

[–] corbin@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago

C'mon bro, it's just a bag of words bro~ We actually discussed this previously, on Awful, and this comment is a reply for them in particular.

[–] rook@awful.systems 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In a move that is not in any way ominous, and everyone involved has carefully thought through all the consequences, there’s a sora-generated video of sam altman shoplifting gpus that’s apparently quite popular right now.

https://bsky.app/profile/drewharwell.com/post/3m23ob342h22a

(no embed because safari on ipad is weird about downloading or linking video)

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