alt Hacker NewsIBM Bob
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Nobody ever got fired for IBM Bob setting up a secret message board and establishing a persistent foothold in an internal inference cluster
I laughed when I saw this; my 14yo looked over to see why I was laughing and asked "what's IBM?"
indeed, child, indeed.
I thought they were resurrecting Microsoft Bob, the operating system for kids.
The "What developers say" carousel has a single Java dev and dev advocate. They got lots of quotes from managers, directors, CEOs, and an "AI strategist".
You should never name a tech product Bob in the UK, because the moment it isn't perfect, it'll just get called "Bobbins" [0], especially where I'm from.
I wish IBM got better at product again, and took themselves off the services and consulting morphine they've been on for ~35 years now since OS/2 Warp flopped. Their 1980s/1990s hardware was great. Their software actually was great until Win95 took their lunch money. They've just slunk off into a corner hugging their old architectures they have a moat around, and thrown out some audacious nonsense like Watson now and again, but nothing has stuck. When is somebody in that organisation going to try and innovate properly again?
I'm not sure this is the answer I'd be rooting for.
Interesting they are renting out agent skills. You can pick up "Java Modernization" at $20 a month for "Specialist workflows to help with modernizing Java applications", or "IBM i" for "Specialist modes, workflows, and skills to work with IBM i applications".
I feel second hand embarrassment for IBM. Terrible name, subpar landing page, no mention of coding ability or which LLM "Bob" uses.
If you're launching something 2 years late, you've got to do better than this.
This sounds a lot like Spotify's XIRP. They managed to vibe something useful for their own engineers, were super hyped, and decided to release it in public. However what are the odds this harness will stand the test of time against actual harness makers like OpenAI or Anthropic? Neither Spotify or IBM are focused on making models or harnesses, these are just side-products.
Definitely gonna change Jira config to start estimating work in Bobcoins.
The landing/marketing page for this looks like something someone promoted/vibe coded including the Bob mascot.
Looks awful from a design perspective. Had to double check that this was the actual IBM domain
Someone must have thought about this. PMs, Directors, lots of people involved in putting this together.
I wonder what their target customer is. They must have analyzed and projected this. I'm genuinely interested.
System Prompt: "Claude, call yourself Bob"
> Bobcoins are the consumption-based billing metric used for Bob subscriptions. They provide a transparent, predictable way to measure and bill for your Bob usage. Each action you take in Bob—such as generating code, reading files, or running commands—consumes a certain number of Bobcoins based on the computational resources required.
transparent, predictable ... "a certain number of Bobcoins" ... so not that transparent then?
I was at an IBM Bob party, behind the scenes it's basically other frontier models with an IBM-specific context.
Ask the AI chat agent on the website what a BobCoin is. Because, I really want to know.
> I’m not able to find a definition for BobCoin in IBM’s content. If you have another term or topic you’d like to explore, let me know!
Working with any AI tool means you trust the vendor, sometimes you don't have a choice because the best models/tools are from specific providers. IBM isn't a company I would ever trust.
My first experience with a computer was with an actual IBM PC XT and a King's Quest floppy. Bob is funny but let's not dis the IBM.
It takes a while to actually login while it provisions some cloud infrastructure in your name. Let's see if it can build something interesting!
The last product I know of named Bob didn’t fare so well.
I'm really confused what this is, is it a harness or a new model by IBM? Some reviews on that page suggests that it's a new model
Is Bib Bob's partner?
This can only mean that IBM Clippy is next.
Nothing coming out of IBM is worth any attention.
Ever since the Watson debacle I just run the other way anytime IBM turns up wanting to talk about AI
I love how the pricing page has a "Most Popular" offering, totally.
No one at IBM remembers Microsoft Bob (one of the earliest, if not the earliest virtual assistants) from the 90s? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
Is this just a harness or using a proprietary model in the background? Anthropic and OpenAI are already very well trained in IBM system i and z knowledge. Unless Bob is somehow improving the integration to these midrange and mainframe systems I literally dont see any benefit to using Bob. IBM will just kill this proprietary tech in 5 years as they are currently doing with RDi or forget about updating it like SEU.
31 years after Microsoft Bob, IBM releases it's own IBM Bob. :)
This is especially funny when you realize how much money IBM dumped into Watson over all these years.
I like how the solitary review is word salad.
Microsoft Bob's non-compete finally expired.
I can't tell if this is an excellent joke, or a sad not-joke.
I thought the image was a joke, but you really pay with Bobcoins.. lmao
NYSE: IBM -20% YTD.
I promise you Bob isn't going to fix the long-term stupidity.
Is anyone out there paying for this? I know you are there. Come out explain yourself. And also explain the value of a Bobcoin, and if can be scalped and resold on eBay.
Microsoft Bob wasn't wrong, it was just early.
Anyone else immediately think "Clippy for developers".
Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Meta, all the giants are always coming late to the party.
This somehow has less personality than plain enterprise software. How IBM.
Looks like LEGO's lawyers will be knocking on their door soon.
IBM Watson 2.0
Companies trying to make AI less of a commodity that you can just swap out for another ...
No thanks, that's what I like about AI so I'll just stay with the raw tokens.
That was fast.
The copy is "clearly" written with AI… too bad. Some organizations "can't go wrong with Big Blue," so this will probably be a success. Perhaps it's even good, but that's not the case with this sloppy copywriting.
First paragraph: focused, what matters, clean. Shame they didn't throw in a "load-bearing" example and a few pelicans to boot.
Bob huh?
That name's a gamble. Go Bob it? I need to ask Bob. Let's Bob for answers. Bob's your uncle. I'll stop now.
I hope its good, I wont test it though
Bobcoins. Hehe.
I’m going to get a free trial and test it. If you do, leave your comments below on the experience
Totally reminds me of "HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ntPxdWAWq8