I have just seen with my own eyes Claude astroturfing on a gamedev subreddit from a botting account that was picked up by Google so I could see a few of their other comments. This account's operation was going on development subs complaining about how good Claude's latest model is and how awful it is being afraid of losing one's job to AI.
replyI know your comment is tongue-in-cheek and the poster here is kinda known, but this kind of astroturfing is a new low and it's everywhere on forums such as these.
I see a lot of these posts on Reddit, too, but I don't think it's actually Anthropic or Claude doing it. It's the same old Reddit karma farmers picking up on the latest trends. They've always combined headlines with ragebait to build karma and now LLM bots make it easier than ever.
replyIt's too bad Reddit allows accounts to hide their comment history now. That was an easy way to identify bot accounts before they started allowing accounts to hide their post history
That is a pity but on the bright side it also helps people to avoid being stalked and harassed.
replyI think it probably is claude and anthropic. It kicked off in earnest towards the end of last year when "AI bubble" news stories peaked.
replyThey're incredibly exposed to investor sentiment and were likely panicking around sept/oct/nov time when AI bubble stories were trending.
These posts were really consistent and repetitive - similar language about "scary good" models and fear of losing jobs.
The whole internet is like this now, and it's only just getting started. Makes me sick tbh, and I am still questioning if this is the kind of industry I want to work in.
replyFor those who remember Digg, the recently relaunched a new version and shut it down almost immediately. They were getting hammered with AI bots when it was realized the Digg apparently still has good SEO. The explain it right on homepage.
replyThey explained it with an AI generated post
reply> I am still questioning if this is the kind of industry I want to work in
replyI'm not. I stick around for the popcorn, and I'm not gonna miss the schadenfreude in a few years.
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replyI've been warning people of Anthropic's astroturfing for a while now. The amount of "Insert latest model/Claude Code is scary. I'm worried about my job" posts, followed by a doom ridden writing about how their job was automated and 30 dudes got fired and the person is pivoting into plumbing or something or working at Mcdonalds, is just too suspicious not to note. Sometimes it's more covert. They don't mention any provider/model. Sometimes there's a subtle insert somewhere in the body, Opus, Claude, etc.
replyI was really confused, then, realized the person you’re replying to misspelled “ad” as "add", and you’re moving forward with the premises GP is an ad, and this HN submission is an ad. Then, you share you saw a Reddit account on a gamedev subreddit complaining AI is too good, & they're worried they won’t have a job, and you believe that Reddit account must have been an ad for AI.
replyJust noting for fellow just-waking-up people
(edit: OP edited)
It's not necessarily astroturfing. There is a seismic shift under way regarding how things get done in this business, and if you don't acknowledge it, that's weird in itself.
replyI've certainly noticed a seismic shift in how bad support and updates have gotten with some 3rd party vendors we use, and the answer they come back with is always that they're experimenting with AI. Not saying AI isn't part of the job now, but it is getting seriously over hyped and over extended.
replyIt's absolutely not seismic. If you've used AI for a little bit, you'll realize it's good at writing boilerplate code. Any complex logic, and you better re-read and correct the code a few times until you trust it.
replyOf course if all you do is "host wordpress website" (like 80% of what's "webdev" do), it will work. Now the issue is that the last 20% are the hardest to cover, and current AI methods will not get there (you need some much more complex methods, like being able to integrate logic with learning-based ML, to do this)
Do folks see a mention of Claude as indicative of an ad? I usually say it because at work we've got a couple different options and I like to mention which one in particular I was using. But maybe I'll just start saying AI on forums unless someone asks me to specify.
replyIt would seem that way for sure, if it was just a random anon posting it, but the person you're replying to is the creator of Redis so I feel it's more likely a genuine opinion/experience rather than a Claude ad...
replyThis is the redis guy you're replying to, I doubt he's on Claude's payroll
replyI think it is more the other direction. I asked Claude how to save money on my cloud costs, and it suggested migrating from DO to Hetzner.
replyIts certainly a choice to accuse antirez of all people
replyTrue, let's not criticize those saints of ours.
replyI mean if it were anyone else, yeah I might agree, but I think Salvatore is being genuine here (and have seen Claude do a similarly surprising job fixing ops issues).
replyOn the other hand he has totally drunk the Kool-AI(d).
replyI don't think so. I think he's clearly abusing language (saying "Claude Code migrated the stufff", rather than "I migrated the stuff after using Claude to help write boilerplate, then I went on double-checking it, testing it, and then running it")
replyI don't think you've nailed it either. He SHOULD be saying "54 days ago, I powered on my computer and opened a terminal. From my editor I reviewed my code files and realized I had quite a mess on my hands. Realizing it was the year A.D. 2026, I decided to fire up a modern tool. I typed "claude" into my terminal. As it launched I told it I wanted helping taking my running programs and moving them from the virtual private servers I was running in Linode (inc) and Digital Ocean (co) to Hetzner (LLC). As Claude used it's tool use abilities it read the files and made suggestions on how to do the migrations, it indicated that it could go ahead and copy the files and run the needed commands but I would need to give it permission first. I granted it permission. Once it said the services were running, I instructed it to test that they were accessible and reliable while I reviewed the glowing new code it had written. In summary, with the help of Claude Code I was able to redeploy 37 services in Hetzner."
replyI think the parent has a point. For how many other accomplishments is the tool framed as the responsible party? We don't say "cranes built the skyscraper", people did. Why do we shift accountability when it comes to AI?
replyIf you vaguely describe to the crane what you want built, and it builds it, then I'd say the crane built it.
replyOn Monday a crane company announces it’s pivoting to AI, followed by a quick 600% boost to its stock price. I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.
replyBecause it shows you are hip and trendy and MAYBE you deserve a job in the AI era
replyFor clarity and accuracy, in the hopes that the person reading it interprets in good faith.
replyBy this logic your most recent comment was just an ad for Netflix.
replydeleted
reply"ad", with a single "d".
replySo it's a Claude ad inside a Hetzner ad inside a decent grammar ad.
You forgot that this entire forum is a VC/incubator ad. Its ads all the way down.
replyDon't forget the ad hominem
replyThe amount of ad populum around this issue certainly reaches ad absurdum levels.
replyAd for which elementary school?
replyCome on can you really nitpick grammar when your original message contains: "when the libraries where[sic] no longer available"
replyBtw this type of grammar error can be found by proofreading your posts with ChatGPT powered OpenClaw assistant.
I was joking. I notoriously write bad English but don't like using LLMs for writing. It removes personality.
reply> I notoriously write bad English...
replyYou mean that you write in English badly. :-)