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Clankers Die on Christmas

remyhax.xyz

171–180 of 268 posts

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citations eight and nine amuse me. I readily and merrily agree with the articles that deriving slurs from existing racist or homophobic slurs is a problem, and the use of these terms in fashions that mirror actual racial stereotypes (e.g. "clanka") is pretty gross. That said, I think that asking people to treat ChatGPT with "kindness and respect" is patently embarrassing. We don't ask people to be nice to their phone…

> I think that asking people to treat ChatGPT with "kindness and respect" is patently embarrassing. We don't ask people to be nice to their phone's autocorrect, or to Siri, or to the forks in their silverware drawer, because that's stupid. > ChatGPT deserves no more or less empathy than a fork does. I agree completely that ChatGPT deserves zero empathy. It can't feel, it can't care, it can't be hurt by your rudeness.…

do you also beg your toilet to flush?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#172
post #43

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

Don't confuse with "clUnker", an old car/machine.

I thought clunker and figured it must be about car reliability.

Even now I've figured it's about AI, I still don't really get it. Is it supposed to be funny?

Re funny, I think the Onion does better https://theonion.com/ai-chatbot-obviously-trying-to-wind-dow...

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?

Racial profiling is now legal: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/us/politics/supreme-court...

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Lolol THANK YOU. I totally parsed it as these guys and was mystified https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clangers Apparently those guys have a g instead of a k.

"Clangers (usually referred to as The Clangers)[2] is a British stop-motion animated children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. They speak only in a whistled language, and eat green soup (supplied by the Soup Dragon) and blue string pudding."

Sounds like early 70s.

"The programmes were originally broadcast on BBC1 between 1969 and 1972, followed by a special episode which was broadcast in 1974."

What else!

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#175

Seems as it would be easier to slip in some anti-training, and have the AIs screw systems up so badly that there is a 'recall' of all the current models. The LLMs and their corresponding systems crawl the web constantly. So, poison the well. Good data behind paywalls and credentialing and the poison pill open and free. Seems like it'd be worth a try anyway.

this sounds dangerous in our current situation.

consider how many in our current administration are entirely completely ill-equipped for their positions. many of them almost certainly rely on llms for even basic shit.

considering how many of these people try to make up for their … inexperience by asking a chatbot to make even basic decisions, poisoning the well would almost certainly cause very real very serious national or even international consequences.

i mean if we had people who were actually equipped for their jobs, it could be hilarious to do. they wouldn’t be nearly as likely to fall for entirely wrong absurd answers. but in our current reality it could actually lead to a nightmare.

i mean that genuinely. many many many people in this current government would -in actuality- fall for the wildest simplest dumbest information poisoning and that terrifies me.

“yes, glue on your pizza will stop the cheese from sliding off” only with actual real consequences.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#176
Does anyone else find it just a little disturbing how hard a certain subset of the population is leaning into this? Like they've finally found a group of people that they're allowed to hate. And let's be clear here, they're personifying this tech. Nobody bothers to hate a word processor or a 3D printer.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that asking people to treat ChatGPT with "kindness and respect" is patently embarrassing. We don't ask people to be nice to their phone's autocorrect, or to Siri, or to the forks in their silverware drawer, because that's stupid. > ChatGPT deserves no more or less empathy than a fork does. I agree completely that ChatGPT deserves zero empathy. It can't feel, it can't care, it can't be hurt by your rudeness.…

do you also beg your toilet to flush?

If it could hold a conversation I might.

I also believe AI is a tool, but I'm sympathetic to the idea that, due to some facet of human psychology, being "rude" might train me to be less respectful in other interactions.

Ergo, I might be more likely to treat you like a toilet.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#180

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

So many people missing the meaning of clanker. Its a satirical way of talking about GPT's. Don't dig too deep
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