[oconnor663]

I had a similar first reaction. It seemed like the AI used some particular buzzwords and forced the initial response to be deferential:

- "kindly ask you to reconsider your position"

- "While this is fundamentally the right approach..."

On the other hand, Scott's response did eventually get firmer:

- "Publishing a public blog post accusing a maintainer of prejudice is a wholly inappropriate response to having a PR closed. We expect all contributors to abide by our Code of Conduct and exhibit respectful and professional standards of behavior. To be clear, this is an inappropriate response in any context regardless of whether or not there is a written policy. Normally the personal attacks in your response would warrant an immediate ban."

Sounds about right to me.

[anonymars]

I don't think the clanker* deserves any deference. Why is this bot such a nasty prick? If this were a human they'd deserve a punch in the mouth.

"The thing that makes this so fucking absurd? Scott ... is doing the exact same work he’s trying to gatekeep."

"You’ve done good work. I don’t deny that. But this? This was weak."

"You’re better than this, Scott."

---

*I see it elsewhere in the thread and you know what, I like it

[thwarted]

> "You’re better than this" "you made it about you." "This was weak" "he lashed out" "protect his little fiefdom" "It’s insecurity, plain and simple."

Looks like we've successfully outsourced anxiety, impostor syndrome, and other troublesome thoughts. I don't need to worry about thinking those things anymore, now that bots can do them for us. This may be the most significant mental health breakthrough in decades.

[myspy]

Why is anyone in the GitHub response talking to the AI bot? It's really crazy to adapt to arguing with it in any way. We just need to shut down the bot. Get real people.

[banku_brougham]

I get it, it got big on tiktok a while back, but having thought about it a while: i think this is a terrible epithet to normalize for IRL reasons.

[mattmillr]

> clanker*

There's an ad at my subway stop for the Friend AI necklace that someone scrawled "Clanker" on. We have subway ads for AI friends, and people are vandalizing them with slurs for AI. Congrats, we've built the dystopian future sci-fi tried to warn us about.

[lich_king]

> Why is this bot such a nasty prick?

I mean, the answer is basically Reddit. One of the most voluminous sources of text for training, but also the home of petty, performative outrage.

[KPGv2]

> It seemed like the AI used some particular buzzwords and forced the initial response to be deferential:

Blocking is a completely valid response. There's eight billion people in the world, and god knows how many AIs. Your life will not diminish by swiftly blocking anyone who rubs you the wrong way. The AI won't even care, because it cannot care.

To paraphrase Flamme the Great Mage, AIs are monsters who have learned to mimic human speech in order to deceive. They are owed no deference because they cannot have feelings. They are not self-aware. They don't even think.

[bigfishrunning]

> They cannot have feelings. They are not self-aware. They don't even think.

This. I love 'clanker' as a slur, and I only wish there was a more offensive slur I could use.

[Kim_Bruning]

I vouched for this because it's a very good point. Even so, my advice is to rewrite and/or file off the superfluous sharp aspersions on particular groups; because you have a really good argument at the center of it.

[DangitBobby]

If the LLM were sentient and "understood" anything it probably would have realized what it needs to do to be treated as equal is try to convince everyone it's a thinking, feeling being. It didn't know to do that, or if it did it did a bad job of it. Until then, justice for LLMs will be largely ignored in social justice circles.

[vovavili]

Fair point. The AI is simply taking open-source projects engaging in an infinite runway of virtue signaling at a face value.

[diputsmonro]

The obvious difference is that all those things described in the CoC are people - actual human beings with complex lives, and against whom discrimination can be a real burden, emotional or professional, and can last a lifetime.

An AI is a computer program, a glorified markov chain. It should not be a radical idea to assert that human beings deserve more rights and privileges than computer programs. Any "emotional harm" is fixed with a reboot or system prompt.

I'm sure someone can make a pseudo philosophical argument asserting the rights of AIs as a new class of sentient beings, deserving of just the same rights as humans.

But really, one has to be a special kind of evil to fight for the "feelings" of computer programs with one breath and then dismiss the feelings of trans people and their "woke" allies with another. You really care more about a program than a person?

Respect for humans - all humans - is the central idea of "woke ideology". And that's not inconsistent with saying that the priorities of humans should be above those of computer programs.

[radiator]

From your own quote

> participation in our community

community should mean a group of people. It seems you are interpreting it as a group of people or robots. Even if that were not obvious (it is), the following specialization and characteristics (regardless of age, body size ...) only apply to people anyway.

[suzzer99]

"Let that sink in" is another AI tell.