this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
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Fuck AI
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A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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The term "AI" has been used for decades to refer to a broad spectrum of things, often times including algorithms that had nothing to do with machine learning or inference.
Technically, what most of us have a problem with isn't "AI" as a whole, but just LLMs and how companies are trying to replace people with them. I agree that people should be specific, as there's a lot of practical application for machine learning and AI that has nothing to do with LLMs.
But you're not going to get anywhere by trying to change the words people use for these things. We saw a similar thing happen with "smart" home automation devices, and before that it was people complaining about "smartphones" not being actually "smart". But both of those terms are still in common use.
I don't think you'll convince anyone by trying to police the terminology for technical accuracy. The focus should be on the specific problems and harmful effects of how the technology is being used
It changes the argument away from the objective of ethics and safety, and towards the words being used. One can use the inaccurate wording while debating its characteristics and problems. It's far too late to control what marketing and public ignorance have set. I wasn't a fan of the AI slop" term, as it's morphed into a general word or use for dismissing something that's not liked or agreed on, nowhere near the original narrow meaning. But it's a word that is now used all the time, and that's how words are created and become authentic, by usage.
The issue of ethics is still important, even though fixing it is far in the past. We still have to have the discussion. The issue of safety in general for AI is something that has been shelved by both sides, and even though it's primarily an AGI topic, it still applies to even non-intelligence LLMs and other systems. If we don't focus on it, it's a dead end for us. It doesn't have to be Terminator-like to be bad for civilization, it doesn't even have to be aware. "Dumb" AI is maybe even worse for us, and yet it's been embraced as something more.
But if the argument is about what we call it and not what's actually happening, nothing will be solved. One can refer to it as AI in a discussion and also talk about its actual defining functions (LLM and so forth). It might even make the point stronger instead of deflecting to what it's called.
Personally I don't use either of these bullshit terms in earnest. I'm not a bullshitter.