We’re naming a machine here, not a human being. Even if it was a slur (I don’t consider it one) it would be directed at a piece of equipment.
I find it fascinating because I don’t think people would bat an eye if that term was used for a hammer or keyboard. Yet somehow it changes when applied to an LLM based machinery. Craftspeople often apply jargon to their tools, much of which is neutral to negative.
The term was literally created in star wars to use as a racial slur against droids
A machine does not have feelings. If you call your power drill a piece of shit you are not overstepping any bounds either.
The reason you don’t insult other humans should be obvious, but none of that translates to machines. From my perspective it’s a grave mistake that we’re even remotely entertaining the idea right now that LLMs are sentient.
From that perspective I really quite appreciate the term. That said, I can see that it really seems to trigger some folks. I’m not sure we have found the right language to refer to what we have.
So no. I cannot stress enough how much I disagree with the idea that this is in any way related to the n-word precisely because this is addressed as non humans.
That we are seriously considering if these things should be in any ways be equated to humans to me is a problem. They are not. They cannot and must not be given rights or responsibilities. They are dumb tools and if we lose sight of that, we can go down really problematic paths.
I have even on the receiving side of agent psychosis for more than a year now (because people talk to the LLM and sometimes the LLM tells people to talk to me) and there is only darkness there.
My hunch is that this term is loaded not because it's seen as a slur, but because people are currently attempting to give LLMs a soul and they are developing a certain unease about some of the consequences that come with it. For some the LLM is developing from a soul-less tool to a something with a personality, something they bond with, that's where some of those lines are blurring. I just don't think this is healthy at all.
I don't think they're even as sophisticated as trying to give Llms a soul. Much more likely that they actively look for how they can be offended at anything - there is most definitely a very large group of people who do that.
You don't need to get dragged into their nonsense. Just ignore/dismiss it
The direct wired link is: https://www.wired.com/story/the-ai-slur-clanker-has-become-a...
A full readable 7 month old snapshot is: https://archive.md/gH1f5
My apologies, it was a real sighting of something that I don't have the time right now to reproduce and investigate further <shrug>.
Moya Bailey, a professor at Northwestern University who specializes in the representation of race and gender in the media,
Bailey also points out that racism within the AI industry goes as far as the actual methods used to power it. She references the negative health impact of xAI data centers in a Memphis neighborhood called Boxtown, which is 90 percent Black, as an example of environmental racism inflicted by the AI industry.
It's worth noting that her objections stem from clean air violations outlined here:
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is belching smog-forming pollution into an area of South Memphis that already leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma.
None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s massive supercomputer is equipped with pollution controls typically required by federal rules.
You are certain about things that experts in philosophy/consciousness/AI can't agree on.
That should make you pause, not plow ahead.
What "type of thinking"?
Industry leaders? The question and the answer that you disregard come from Alan Turing.
I share your dislike of the industry’s marketing, but this is coming off as more petulant than the reasonable skepticism you seem to be aiming for.
Funny, why do you care what other people "consider"? Let people think for themselves if the French revolution was important or not, why invoke authority/consensus.
I guess providers will look to (further?) exploit this for marketing/strategic purposes so we should be very aware of such an important bias.
As one of the original creators to make clanker-themed TikToks, Stewart, who goes by Chaise online, was dubbed the “clanker guy” by his fanbase after racking up millions of views. But in August, the 19-year-old content creator, who is Black, announced that he would no longer be publishing any more videos on the subject. The joke, he said, and responses to it, had become racist.
“When I go into my comment section and people are starting to call me ‘cligger’ and ‘clanka’ or ‘you’re a dirty clanker’—not voicing those slurs at AI and electronics, but at me—I don’t find that entertaining or funny at all,” Stewart explains in the video.
...
On TikTok and Instagram, however, the ongoing backlash against AI has taken on the form of short video skits, envisioning a future where robots have been fully incorporated into society. The term “clanker,” along with “tinskins,” “wirebacks,” and “oil bleeders” are used as pejoratives in these skits. But some of these skits appear to be using clankers as stand-ins for Black people, perpetuating racist tropes and scenarios that harken back to a pre–Civil Rights era.
In one skit, creator Samuel Jacob dresses up in a police officer’s uniform and throws out phrases such as, “Don’t you know clankers sit in the back of the bus, Rosa Sparks?” and “Come on George Droid, looks like it’s jail time for you, rust monkey.” Another skit by TikTokker Stanzi Potenza depicts a waitress at a diner acting out a scenario in which she’s refusing service to the subject with the words “pov: you’re a clanker in 2050” sprawled across the screen. Speaking in a Southern drawl, she tells the camera, “Didn’t you see the sign outside? We don’t serve clankers here.” The caption underneath the video is a variation of a common phrase often used by people to defend their own prejudices: “Don’t worry, I have robot friends.”
Clearly there's been some strong parallelism in usages of clanker and nagger, just as there were in usages of ginger and its anagram by Tim Minchin in his song Prejudice.
Because it's cool to be substratist against robots.
I hate to say "check yourself", but this time maybe. Maybe with a lot of ...
I also find this sentiment to be a uniquely American phenomenon. They tend to see racism and discrimination where it has no place being. My impression is that they have dreams about it. Bonkers to me.
The OP is still in his edgy teenager phase, apparently… yes I know they’re successful; that might actually be the reason why they pick these words.
“Look, I’m so cool for using this neo-slur even though I build AI products! Like I’m so meta you see, I should be LOVING LLMs but instead I use the word clanker! I’m so complex and intricate and yeah obviously I’m not like the other AI users building slop. Cuz if I was building slop I would be infatuated with LLMs and thus I wouldn’t be using the term clanker. And also I’m very well emotionally tuned and suuuure clanker doesn’t sound like n-er to me and if it does to you then YOU have a problem! Oh those Americans and their political correctness! So annoying! But ME I’m different and don’t care about that because I’m HONEST and don’t hide the truth. Suck it Americans!”
Btw I’m not American nor politically correct. Still, I think it’s lame to use the word “clanker” because it shows immaturity.