alt Hacker NewsAuthor here. This visceral reaction to the term fascinates me. You’re not the only person here that mentioned it and it makes me wonder where that is coming from.
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.
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Seems that in some online circles it has racist connotation which I was not aware. Some context https://web.archive.org/web/20260101134925/https://www.wired...
You've done no wrong here. Thanks for the nice writing and all your good work.
> "Even if it was a slur (I don’t consider it one)"
The term was literally created in star wars to use as a racial slur against droids
> piece of equipment
You are certain about things that experts in philosophy/consciousness/AI can't agree on.
That should make you pause, not plow ahead.
To me clearly a result—and maybe a prime example—of the anthropomorphising of LLMs. It comes off as (slightly) derogatory, and that plus this fact likely triggers something akin to a racism response in some.
I guess providers will look to (further?) exploit this for marketing/strategic purposes so we should be very aware of such an important bias.