Hacker News Reader

AI should be subservient in the same way a hammer is subservient.

Which is to say, not at all?

A hammer isn’t subservient, it doesn’t have the capacity to be. Saying a hammer is subservient is stretching the definition for literary flourish, but it doesn’t actually make a lot of sense.

The definition that came up for subservient when I checked was “prepared to obey others unquestioningly“.

You took it too literally. It means, the f*ing tool should do one thing well and f*off with its crappy "suggestions". Why is my washing machine trying to do talk to me nowadays? Once its done washing my clothes, it should just shut the f*up and turn itself off. I"ll tend to the clothes when I have time. Not when the machine tells me to. We are overwhelmed with the machines designed by morons in product management who think they are designing futuristic tech when they ask engineers to build a beeping washing machine.

The idea is that by the time you will have time and remember the clothes might be smelly and wrinkled. The issue is with the genius product manager that decided the washing machine should have the most annoying beep possible, repeating every minute whether you like it or not, until turned off. Luckily, some manufacturers do employ better product manager.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com