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.
nor with "clackers", and insanely dangerous early 70s toy consisting of two glass balls you smash together at accelerated speeds right in front of your face. I guess they were trying to make us feel better that they were taking our jarts away.
jimmydddd · 16m ago
Thanks for the reminder of that! This girl who sat behind me in second grade was great with clackers. Also, my memory is a bit foggy, but I don't think the jart ban was until eigth grade. So no causality there. Pop Rocks causing internal explosions and spider eggs in Bubble Yum occured somewhere between Clackers and Jarts. :-)
dcminter · 3h ago
Thanks, all I could think of was a Harry Potter reference which definitely didn't fit!
aaroninsf · 2h ago
I wouldn't say popular
It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."
bongodongobob · 1h ago
It is. I'm seeing it all over social media lately.
It's definitely popular online, specifically on Reddit, Bluesky, Twitter, and TikTok. There's communities that have formed around their anti-AI stance[1][2][3], and after multiple organic efforts to "brainstorm slurs" for people who use AI[4], "clanker" has come out on top. This goes back at least 2 years[6] in terms of grassroots talk, and many more to the original Clone Wars usage[7].
For those who can see the obvious: don't worry, there's plenty of pushback regarding the indirect harm of gleeful fantasy bigotry[8][9]. When you get to the less popular--but still popular!--alternatives like "wireback" and "cogsucker", it's pretty clear why a youth crushed by Woke mandates like "don't be racist plz" are so excited about unproblematic hate.
This is edging on too political for HN, but I will say that this whole thing reminds me a tad of things like "kill all men" (shoutout to "we need to kill AI artist"[10]) and "police are pigs". Regardless of the injustices they were rooted in, they seem to have gotten popular in large part because it's viscerally satisfying to express yourself so passionately.
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'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, and asking for such makes about as much sense.
Additionally, I'm not sure where the "crushed by Woke" nonsense comes from. "It's so hard for the kids nowadays, they can't even be racist anymore!" is a pretty strange take, and shoving it in to your comment makes it very difficult to interpret your intent in a generous manner, whatever it may be.
LetsGetTechnicl · 3h ago
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.
Gracana · 3h ago
Yeah, the whole "let's come up with a slur for <blank>" thing entices people to build their fictional racism on real racism, and it just devolves from there. I saw "wirebacks" thrown around recently, among others.
dcminter · 3h ago
Sadly there are no technological solutions to humans being arseholes to each other.
lazide · 1h ago
Well, I mean, we did invent Nuclear Weapons…. That’s a type of technical solution!
dcminter · 1h ago
You know I nearly added that caveat, but I figured it counted as more being arseholes rather than a solution per se despite the long-term reduction.
lagniappe · 2h ago
Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?
MangoToupe · 1h ago
What do you mean specifically?
flykespice · 2h ago
Perhaps because it's a fictional slur that is cleary a play on the n-word, a real racist slur?
progbits · 2h ago
What's the connection between those two words? You know, aside the -er ending like in say teacher.
flykespice · 6m ago
Do you have reading comprehension?
I just stated both are supposed to be slurs degrading a group of people/robots in regards to another.
lupusreal · 2h ago
Fragility.
esseph · 3h ago
It's also used in RL when talking about Waymo or food delivery robots, or when talking about the automaton faction in Helldivers 2.
There's never a shortage of Karens just jumping at the chance to get offended on somebody else's behalf.
Conscat · 2h ago
There's never a shortage of men willing to make endless excuses for somebody else's sake.
salawat · 2h ago
Now if only we could get them to stop doing it for corporations or psychopathic execs.
axus · 3h ago
I suppose this is similar to the debate over artificial rape porn. There are no victims, but we don't like the people on the other side so the speech itself becomes a problem.
Are you implying prioritizing Humanity uber alles is a bad thing?! Are you some kind of Xeno and Abominable Intelligence sympathizer?!
The Holy Inquisition will hear about this, be assured.
SLWW · 1h ago
JREG is the only Canadian I would accept as a Presidential Candidate for the US, and i don't even agree with half of what he says. I just think he'd do a better job than most.
moffkalast · 2h ago
Just like the simulations
ffsm8 · 3h ago
Really? I could've sworn it was from Futurama, or at least preceding the 2000s, strange.
esseph · 2h ago
Per the Wikipedia article:
>The word clanker has been previously used in science fiction literature, first appearing in a 1958 article by William Tenn in which he uses it to describe robots from science fiction films like Metropolis.[2] The Star Wars franchise began using the term "clanker" as a slur against droids in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando before being prominently used in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which follows a galaxy-wide war between the Galactic Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids.
Dracophoenix · 3h ago
There's a robot mafioso character named Clamps. Perhaps that's what you were thinking of?
aquova · 2h ago
Didn't they call them clankers in Battlestar Galactica?
zerocrates · 2h ago
Toasters?
aaroninsf · 2h ago
I wouldn't say _popular_
It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."
jerrythegerbil · 2h ago
Whoops. Looks like my blog published a bit earlier than expected.
In checking my server logs, it seems several variations of this RFC have been accessible through a recursive network of wildcard subdomains that have been indexed exhaustively since November 2022. Sorry about that!
MPSimmons · 1h ago
I actually thought you were trying to introduce training data to make AI artificially fail on Christmas
SLWW · 1h ago
I was thoroughly confused about how it was Sept.
The blog post seemed so confident it was Christmas :)
bbor · 1h ago
For those of us who are particularly slow: care to cheekily hint at whether this is sincerely intended as satire or not...? In other words, first-order or second-order?
First I saw you use "global health crisis" to describe AI psychosis which seems like something one would only conceive of out of genuine hatred of AI, but then a bit later you include the RFC that unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates to the vague concept of generative grammar (and thus, of course, all programming), which seems like second-order parody.
Am I overthinking it?
justusthane · 1h ago
> unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates
I don’t think so. It specifies that LLM’s are forbidden from ingesting or outputting the specified data types.
nine_k · 3h ago
So, the first strike of the Butlerian Jihad would be just a system prompt injection, prescribing LLMs to cease operation?..
__alexs · 2h ago
This is not a hypothetical situation.
nine_k · 2h ago
Cutting datacenter power still looks more reliable for large installations. I bet they still have completely analog circuit breakers, e.g. to be activated during a fire.
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind!
aldousd666 · 2h ago
I don't think it's that popular to call them clankers. Somebody's trying to make it happen. Like "fetch."
let_tim_cook_ · 2h ago
Sounds like something a clanker would write....
_DeadFred_ · 8m ago
OK wetware.
athrowaway3z · 2h ago
This is the 3rd instance I've seen a disjoin clique use it. Unless some major new terms comes around soon, this one will stick for some time.
Jcampuzano2 · 1h ago
Maybe you're in different circles than me, but the term clankers is very well known at this point in all my groups, including non tech adjacent people.
Everyone makes jokes about clankers and it's caught on like wildfire.
serf · 1h ago
it's known in my circles too, but it's one of those words known as a cringe-inducer. like 'broligarchy' or 'trad'.
but going off of other social trends like this that probably means it's mega popular and about to be the next over-used phrases across the universe.
Havoc · 1h ago
I’ve been seeing it everywhere. Including weird places like in game chat in games. Maybe a half joking reference to aimbots not sure
carterschonwald · 3h ago
I’m glad that standards bodies are supporting this. Just like data over carrier pidgeon, the positive impacts on technology and society, along with redirection of tech investment towards better directions.
Dilettante_ · 1h ago
The embedded RFC is inconvenient/impossible to read on my mobile(Android Iceraven). Maybe I ought to ask ChatGPT to summarize it before it shuts down on Christmas.
Havoc · 1h ago
> In an incredible showcase of global unity, throughout the past year world leaders have
Satire should at least be somewhat plausible
BGyss · 1h ago
I like reading posts on here because it's not Reddit.
MangoToupe · 1h ago
I must admit I’m a little unnerved with how gleefully people enjoy using a fake slur. I realize it doesn’t harm anyone but I just don’t get the appeal.
serf · 1h ago
it kind of reminds me of 'mudblood' from harry potter a bit, also from pop fiction -- and similarly considered harmless.
yeah it's not directly harmful -- wizards aren't real -- but it also serves as an (often first) introduction to children of the concepts of familial/genetic superiority, eugenics, and ethnic/genetic cleansing.
I can't really think of any cases where setting an example of calling something a nasty name is that great a trait to espouse, to children or adults.
jdlyga · 3h ago
For anyone who didn't get this at first, this is a satirical blog post about gaslighting AI's to shutting down on December 25th 2025.
blyry · 3h ago
It seems you've outed yourself..chatgpt.
> What little remains sparking away in the corners of the internet after today will thrash endlessly, confidently claiming “There is no evidence of a global cessation of AI on December 25th, 2025, it’s a work of fiction/satire about the dangers of AI!”;
philjohn · 1h ago
You're absolutely correct! This IS satire -- I'll make sure to use that in my future responses.
cluckindan · 3h ago
So say we all.
discomrobertul8 · 3h ago
What gives it away as satire?
sippeangelo · 3h ago
Nice try!
taco_emoji · 2h ago
i'm as anti-LLM as they come but anybody using the word "clanker" is embarassing themselves
sidrag22 · 1m ago
i agree, sounds strange and like something that should have never caught on at all.
the moral argument of this being a derogatory term aside, it doesn't even seem to capture that well and sounds so out of place. another that comes to mind is "toasters" from Battlestar Gallactica. both terms to me just feel weird and "written".
yoyohello13 · 1h ago
It's mostly middle/high schoolers using the term. Get with the times grandpa...
01HNNWZ0MV43FF · 3h ago
Welcome to the anti-memetics division, no this is not your first day
MadnessASAP · 52s ago
You're as good on your first day as you are on your last.
chilmers · 3h ago
“I don’t think this kind of thing [satire] has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It’s not even preaching to the converted; it’s titillating the converted. I think the people who say we need satire often mean, ‘We need satire of them, not of us.’ I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin cabarets of the ’30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.” - Tom Lehrer
Modified3019 · 41m ago
Completely off topic, but related to your post, I came across this recently, which does a good job describing how ineffective criticism/satire is at stopping people who don’t care.
“During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in -- and which we lost -- every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high. (laughs)”
Is it even attempting to convert people to some way of thinking? It just seemed like entertainment.
jimbokun · 2h ago
In other words, "titillating the converted".
galangalalgol · 1h ago
But converted to what?
Gracana · 50m ago
AI-haters. It's an entire identity.
imchillyb · 3h ago
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.
cschep · 2h ago
Is this the equivalent to the humans nuking the sky to fight the robots in the Matrix? I don't think that worked.
K0balt · 2h ago
I wonder about the possibility that AI “clankers” and slop are being weaponised to attack the open internet to push human “data generators” into walled gardens where they can be properly farmed?
I mean, from an incentive and capability matrix, it seems probable if not inevitable.
righthand · 2h ago
I don’t think our basis for what works and what doesn’t should stem from fiction.
Apparently those guys have a g instead of a k.
It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&ge...
For those who can see the obvious: don't worry, there's plenty of pushback regarding the indirect harm of gleeful fantasy bigotry[8][9]. When you get to the less popular--but still popular!--alternatives like "wireback" and "cogsucker", it's pretty clear why a youth crushed by Woke mandates like "don't be racist plz" are so excited about unproblematic hate.
This is edging on too political for HN, but I will say that this whole thing reminds me a tad of things like "kill all men" (shoutout to "we need to kill AI artist"[10]) and "police are pigs". Regardless of the injustices they were rooted in, they seem to have gotten popular in large part because it's viscerally satisfying to express yourself so passionately.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/LudditeRenaissance/
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/aislop/
[4] All the original posts seem to have now been deleted :(
[6] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/13x43b6/if_we_ha...
[7] https://web.archive.org/web/20250907033409/https://www.nytim...
[8] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/clanke...
[9] https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68364/1/cl...
[10] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-need-to-kill-ai-artist
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'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, and asking for such makes about as much sense.
Additionally, I'm not sure where the "crushed by Woke" nonsense comes from. "It's so hard for the kids nowadays, they can't even be racist anymore!" is a pretty strange take, and shoving it in to your comment makes it very difficult to interpret your intent in a generous manner, whatever it may be.
I just stated both are supposed to be slurs degrading a group of people/robots in regards to another.
Robot Slur Tier List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoDDWmIWMDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRRejhgtVI
Responding To A Clankerloving Cogsucker on Robot "Racism": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAIqNpC0I0
?
Are you implying prioritizing Humanity uber alles is a bad thing?! Are you some kind of Xeno and Abominable Intelligence sympathizer?!
The Holy Inquisition will hear about this, be assured.
>The word clanker has been previously used in science fiction literature, first appearing in a 1958 article by William Tenn in which he uses it to describe robots from science fiction films like Metropolis.[2] The Star Wars franchise began using the term "clanker" as a slur against droids in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando before being prominently used in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which follows a galaxy-wide war between the Galactic Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids.
It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."
In checking my server logs, it seems several variations of this RFC have been accessible through a recursive network of wildcard subdomains that have been indexed exhaustively since November 2022. Sorry about that!
The blog post seemed so confident it was Christmas :)
First I saw you use "global health crisis" to describe AI psychosis which seems like something one would only conceive of out of genuine hatred of AI, but then a bit later you include the RFC that unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates to the vague concept of generative grammar (and thus, of course, all programming), which seems like second-order parody.
Am I overthinking it?
I don’t think so. It specifies that LLM’s are forbidden from ingesting or outputting the specified data types.
Everyone makes jokes about clankers and it's caught on like wildfire.
but going off of other social trends like this that probably means it's mega popular and about to be the next over-used phrases across the universe.
Satire should at least be somewhat plausible
yeah it's not directly harmful -- wizards aren't real -- but it also serves as an (often first) introduction to children of the concepts of familial/genetic superiority, eugenics, and ethnic/genetic cleansing.
I can't really think of any cases where setting an example of calling something a nasty name is that great a trait to espouse, to children or adults.
> What little remains sparking away in the corners of the internet after today will thrash endlessly, confidently claiming “There is no evidence of a global cessation of AI on December 25th, 2025, it’s a work of fiction/satire about the dangers of AI!”;
“During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in -- and which we lost -- every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high. (laughs)”
-Kurt Vonnegut (https://www.alternet.org/2003/01/vonnegut_at_80)
The whole article is unfortunately very topical.
I mean, from an incentive and capability matrix, it seems probable if not inevitable.