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They're Everywhere

And we finally have a word for them.

Phil McKinney
Phil McKinney
1 min read
Image of terminal saying that the AI Skynet went online on August 29, 1997.

Skynet went online on August 29, 1997.

Except it didn't. That was a movie.

But somewhere between the theater and the op-ed page, the line dissolved. And now they're everywhere: the forwarded articles, the Senate testimony, the conference panel that opens with 'I'm not against AI, but...' before spending forty minutes explaining why they are.

They're not running on evidence. They're running on sci-fi training data. And they can't tell the difference between a screenplay and a forecast.

They call it caution. They call it wisdom. They invoke the good old days, the ones where everything ran on leaded gas.

Every new capability gets the same treatment. Slow down. Pause. What if?

We finally have a word for it.

Glitchers.

The people who see a glitch in the Matrix every time a new technology drops.

The Luddites had looms to blame. Glitchers have chatbots.

Spoiler: the looms won.


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Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.


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