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Comment by nightski

11 hours ago

Anyone else fearing Anthropic more and more each day? Not from a perspective that they are doing so well, but rather that it's like an industry tornado, sucking up and destroying everything in it's path.

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nightski

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gsleblanc  1 hour ago

Yes. I think Anthropic's success with claude code + cowork and the way it's shredding through white-collar work is basically cementing the thesis of Geoffrey Hinton's latest paper (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12559-026-105...). I highly recommend reading it in full, but briefly:

1. Copernican Revolution -> We aren't the center of the universe

2. The Darwinian Revolution -> We aren't the pinnacle of life

3. The Freudian Revolution -> We aren't even in control of our own minds

4. The "Intuitive AI" Revolution -> We aren't the only form of intelligence

I think even a month ago I would've read this article and scoffed, but having used Claude Code almost exclusively at work for the last couple months it seems pretty undeniable that in-context-learning and a good enough harness is all you need to displace most "thinking" jobs that require just a bachelors. The hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into data center build-out basically hinges on this thesis, and frankly I trust the judgements of the billionaires financing these deals better than LLM-naysayers on hackernews (not to mention the non-public info they have access to). You don't need to reach superintelligence to still deeply, deeply affect society, and I think Anthropic was the first to build products that are actually good enough and, critically, hands-off enough to do just this. Every day it's clearer and clearer to me that "I was born into a poor family but am relatively intelligent and good at learning things, therefore I can find success" is exactly what will ultimately be eliminated as the outcome of this unless we get the government to step in and regulate.

I could go on and on, but the main point I'm trying to make is that you should definitely examine unease you feel about Anthropic, consider framing that unease in the context of Hinton's argument, and ask yourself what the implications may be.

danny_codes  43 minutes ago

Not really. I mean it’s not like they are particularly far ahead. Maybe a small lead on model performance, but nothing particularly significant. All the major players are within 6 months of each other. As soon as model improvements plateau there will be no observable difference between providers.

raincole  11 hours ago

Name three things they destroyed?

  • OkWing99  5 hours ago

    1. Figma (in progress)

    2. Most entry level jobs for current graduates in white collar fields. (See hiring rates for these positions)

    3. Thousands of layoffs (mostly attributed to AI use, while not 100%, the Anthropic's specific marketing push has a huge influence on this - unlike OAI and other labs)

    4. All low-code products/startups

    5. Web agencies who did small websites for local businesses

    While AI industry push is there for all of the above, Anthropic's specific marketing/PR is specifically directed towards forced adoption of AI and burning tokens, unlike from other labs.

    • csa  4 hours ago

      > 1. Figma (in progress)

      Hmmm… maybe. I think not. It really depends on your other claims below, with which I mostly disagree.

      2. Most entry level jobs for current graduates in white collar fields. (See hiring rates for these positions)

      Maybe a small amount. Entry level white collar jobs have a low hiring rate for other reasons, imho.

      3. Thousands of layoffs (mostly attributed to AI use, while not 100%, the Anthropic's specific marketing push has a huge influence on this - unlike OAI and other labs)

      What they say and what the actual reasons are not the same, imho. Correcting for over hiring is the actual main reason.

      4. All low-code products/startups

      Low-code and no-code products in the hands of someone who doesn’t have a developer’s mind and/or experience usually ends up as a mess, and quickly becomes an unusable mess.

      I know of exactly two people who have done successfully used AI to make a low-code/no-code product. One is just highly motivated and wicked smart. The other did a minor in CS a long time ago (works in a different field). Everyone else shows me a pile of garbage and asks me how to fix it (answer: throw it away and start from scratch).

      5. Web agencies who did small websites for local businesses

      As with 4 above, the only site a local business can make for themselves is one that functions as a business card… at best. Usually it looks more like a business card that a kindergartner made. They simply don’t understand what makes a website good for their business, therefore they cannot direct AI to make it for them.

      There’s a lot to criticize about AI, imho, but these aren’t on the list.

      3 replies →

  • chandureddyvari  34 minutes ago

    I was to talking to a YC founder, his biggest fear is waking up to a new Claude launch making his startup obsolete the next morning.

    Similar sentiment shared with other startup founders- check on x about all VCs talking about moats against big labs.

  • nvme0n1p1  11 hours ago

    [flagged]

    • raincole  11 hours ago

      1. Bun is right there on Github. You can download can use it right now.

      2. Sure, that's one thing.

      3. Coefficient Bio is not a thing. They don't have a product. Ever. It's just Anthropic hired 10 people for a ridiculous amount of premium bonus. (Time will prove it's a bad decision, btw)

      4. (snorts)

      1 reply →

m3kw9  8 hours ago

Without Karpathy, the AI field hasn't skipped a beat, but he is certainly a great addition to any team.

yobid20  6 hours ago

its destroyed my codebases with ai slop , errors, and code maintenance nightmares going forward. i feel bad for anyone having to work on ai generated code.