If you use the word “clanker” to talk about generative AI, I am immediately suspicious of you.

[joshg@mathstodon.xyz]

@danirabbit (and the wise old white dude *apologized for fucking up earlier* instead of being a goddamn boomer and doubling down)

[robotistry@mstdn.ca]

@danirabbit Thank you for writing this down. It's been bothering me and I've been struggling to clarify why.

Partly because whenever I see it I think "Why are you being obnoxious to the robots?" and then get short-circuited into STOP USING HARDWARE TERMS FOR SOFTWARE THINGS!!

And partly because of the disconnect between
"this entity deserves a slur"
and
"this entity is incapable of feeling the feelings that slurs are designed to elicit".

New understanding:

using it means either "you're trolling" or "you are attempting to signal in-group/out-group human relationships via a slur on a type of software model" or "you think a software model of human language is capable of being offended and want to offend one". None of those indicate someone willing to have an honest conversation.

[r3dr3clus3@infosec.exchange]

@danirabbit I read this post maybe an hour and a half ago and scrolled past it and thought, "Well that's silly".

But something in the back of my mind made me scroll back and bookmark it.

And then I started typing a response, mostly about why I found this silly.

But then I thought maybe I don't understand, and started reading the comments.

And then typed part of a new comment about why I thought this was silly.

But then I deleted that and walked away from my computer and thought about this and set this next to some other ideas I've held onto for years and felt those kind of come apart, and then came back to my computer and journaled about a thing that seems kind of unrelated, but your post here brought into clarity.

And now I'm back here writing this because at first I was with the comments going, "Is this satire?" and then "Oh it's not...but this is kind of silly." and now I'm at, "Yeah - this is a really excellent point and really important and I'm going to need to sit with this for a bit because this is a noble perspective about language & bigotry & intentions that I need to internalize."

Thanks for this. This is important in a way that I can't really articulate concisely yet -- but this incredibly insightful and important. Thank you for this.

[ki@chaos.social]

@danirabbit
I think we should use "clanker" for users of these fascist-by-design slopshit generators out of ignorance or despite better judgement, not the models themselves, if we use it at all

and I agree that we probably shouldn't use it at all

[pepperthevixen@meow.social]

@danirabbit The people who use that word are reeeeeeeeeeeal excited to do 1950's cosplay. It makes me viscerally uncomfortable

[rupert@mastodon.nz]

@etsyy @SymTrkl I'm a pretty cynical person, and yet more often than not, when I'm wrong, it's because I wasn't cynical enough.
Particularly when it comes to the whims of billionaires, be it LLMs or US foreign policy.

[alice@mk.nyaa.place]

@danirabbit@mastodon.online i see the internet is acting very mature and considering every nuance in this thread /s

[danirabbit@mastodon.online]

“I’m not racist to real life people. I just fantasize about the idea of racism and want to reenact it”

Hmmmmmmmmmm

[karolherbst@chaos.social]

@danirabbit everything is always also a self revelation

[li@tech.lgbt]

@danirabbit 'im not racist towards real people' -> proceeds to use their made up slur towards, a real person

(also ive already seen this starting to be used against people who have prosthetic limbs, so yay ableism)

[briellebouquet@lgbtqia.space]

@danirabbit my partner brought this up to me a little while ago and i had a similar reaction.

it smacked a little bit of like, "its okay to slur gay republicans" energy but in a super extra uncomfortable and weird kinda way

[li@tech.lgbt]

@zaire @danirabbit i mean, i don't see them saying that they are ?

[li@tech.lgbt]

@ada_magicat @danirabbit they are treated, by those who use these terms *as if* they are people as if they are some group .. but then when called out on it, they say 'they are not people so its fine'

[danirabbit@mastodon.online]

@briellebouquet yes! Or misgendering cis people that are bad people. Like why is their automatic response to use bigotry?

[mudlark@bark.lgbt]

@danirabbit yeah, I get a similar feeling. it can be hard to convey to people because honestly it does sound like a satiric take. There's a Jehtt short that does an okay job at explaining it in a lighthearted way I think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1F36LvfVQg

[zaire@fedi.absturztau.be]

@Li @danirabbit ok i mean like

it’s a matter of missing context

OP is written under the implication “clanker” is unironically a racist slur, in which case yeah it all checks out, but like, is it? i’ve always thought it’s specifically a dunk on slop generators, little more than that. do bigots actually use that as a slur for actual people like the n word? that would be surprising

[briellebouquet@lgbtqia.space]

@danirabbit bigotry is a gun. some people learn to not point it in certain places, but miss the point, which is always, just put the fuckin gun down and never pick it up again

[li@tech.lgbt]

@zaire @danirabbit the point is that it basically is used as a slur just not directed towards people, (well, actually someone used it towards OP in this exact thread, so thats a lie tbh) ..

and its just .. .. 'why are you trying to emulate bigotry ??' .. your saying its not a person, but then your trying to treat it as if it is a person, and in like the worst way possible

(also the term has been started to be used towards people with prosthetic limbs, so uhh)

[zaire@fedi.absturztau.be]

@Li @danirabbit right, thant makes sense then, thanks

[jan_leila@mspsocial.net]

@danirabbit I had to explain to one of these people what the word play on "wire back" is talking about