On a side note, has anyone noticed the disparity of attitude and level of intensity of dialogue when it comes to AI in different HN posts?

Given that there are many threads where 80% act as if AI would cause second coming I suspected that main topic of discussion here would be "is it worth learning CS at all in 2026?". To my (pleasant) surprise the discussion here is much more "normal". Does anyone suspect that some HN posts have a lot of astroturfing from AI-adjacent organisations?

> I suspected that main topic of discussion here would be "is it worth learning CS at all in 2026?"

Considering the current state of the job market I don't think it is good idea to go into CS in 2026 expecting a lucrative career. People who just love to program will find a job eventually, of course.

> Does anyone suspect that some HN posts have a lot of astroturfing from AI-adjacent organisations?

Why does it have to be AI? I don't work for OpenAI/Anthropic/etc. and am an "AI-skeptic" overall. I don't believe that the current job market conditions are caused by AI. I think the issue is that the field has become saturated with all your regular "fullstack web ninjas" while higher education institutions are still pumping hordes of CS(-adjacent) grads. Things will get worse (people that went into CS before the downturn are still graduating) before they get better (smaller number of people who are truly interested are choosing the field these days which will result less people of higher average quality graduating in a few years).

I actually feel like the discussion here has trended relatively negative on AI for the most part.

Things change quickly though, and it makes sense for opinions to, too.

I'm sure there are bots on here as much as astroturfing.

Partly is seems to be how quickly an article has comments leaning to one side or another. Once a few of these comments get off the ground, it's hard for voting on HN to reflect the discussion these days.

It does appear that more users from Reddit etc. are not just using HN these days, but commenting. The quality of posts and comments has definitely decreased, in line with the quality of content on blog posts decreasing.

My impression is that there is definitely astroturfing around AI, yes

HN has become per-thread view-enforced. It's pretty obvious now what the "correct" views are for any given thread, any dissenting comments are downvoted to death. When the next thread comes along, the opposite view might be the "allowed one". There's a particularly egregious amount of veiled partisanship behind a lot of posting too.

This could be a group think phenomenon, or it could be botting. Hard to say. I'd say in at least a few cases, it's someone with access and interest into bot downvotes landing on a thread and using that to suppress dissenting views.