| ▲ | Mea Culpa – Dark Hours(blog.terrygodier.com) |
| 398 points by satvikpendem 6 hours ago | 185 comments |
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| ▲ | user43928 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| On the previous HN posts I got this impression: The developer's astrology app containing tarot reading features was rejected from Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps. He then replaced the app's content with a clone of, if not the identical open source astronomy app "Dark Hours", copying even the name. The original is here: https://darkhours.app The developer was then in contact with John Gruber, who wrote an article claiming Apple's reviewers confuse a nice, scientific astronomy app with astrology. The developer reviewed the article before publication. It then turned out that the developer forgot to mention that originally he did upload an astrology app for review. Gruber felt duped, and noted that it's unclear whether an updated build containing the new astronomy app was ever submitted to Apple for review: https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje... Now the developer seems to claim that he merely accidentally cloned that open source app when working with Claude. I am not buying it. |
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| ▲ | whstl 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > I am not buying it. Coincidentally: Just in the last few weeks, D'addario, one of largest guitar string manufacturers, posted on Instagram what is clearly an AI-song to advertise its new line of guitar strings. After being called out on it being AI, they posted a mobile-recording of the song recreated in a DAW, but it didn't even match the timing or the notes played. After being called on it AGAIN, they blamed it on LANDR and Apple Mastering "changing the notes", but those only do "AI knob tweaking", they're not generative-ai audio synthesis. LANDR itself replied. After being called on it AGAIN, they finally caved and said one of their workers used Suno without their knowledge. After someone contacted the worker, he said he was pretty clear in his communication with D'addario that he had used Suno. EDIT: The worker claimed it was "his first time using AI" and "he didn't know", but after someone did some digging in his Instagram profile, there's a few Suno songs and a lot of AI posters and avatars. This sort of ass-covering is getting crazy with AI... | | |
| ▲ | tomashubelbauer 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Reminds me of politicians and public figures saying they got "hacked" after doing/posting something stupid and getting backlash for it. I guess "AI did it" is the new iteration on that. | | | |
| ▲ | imdsm 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The solution is clear: yes we use AI, and we're okay with it. There's no way Claude/AI recreated another persons app exactly, with the same name and branding, without being told to do so in some way. I just don't believe it. And him not using it and calling out AI is just him covering his ass | | |
| ▲ | kibwen 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > The solution is clear: yes we use AI, and we're okay with it. Except that some portion of D'addario's customers--presumably those that actually buy their guitar strings to create music via real guitars--aren't okay with it. | | |
| ▲ | InsideOutSanta 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yeah, I think that case is absolutely wild, because ostensibly the point of the recorded music was to showcase the strings. | |
| ▲ | whstl 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don't understand why you're getting downvoted, but you're correct. That's the reason for the complaints and the company has already taken an anti-AI stance precisely for this reason. |
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| ▲ | 1attice 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > There's no way Claude/AI recreated another persons app exactly Entropy doesn't need to be set to zero for legally significant duplication |
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| ▲ | avaer 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Think about all of the cases that don't come out. Everyone hates AI, yet everyone is using AI. I refuse to believe nearly 100% of game developers aren't using AI, but how many put the tag of shame on the Steam store page? It's a very strange situation. | | |
| ▲ | WhrRTheBaboons 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | >I refuse to believe nearly 100% of game developers aren't using AI Do you refuse to believe nearly 100% of written content isn't made by AI? Was your comment? I struggle to imagine thinking that no one does things themselves, for fun. What a nihilistic view. | | |
| ▲ | dghlsakjg 21 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I don’t believe they are saying that 100% of the entire game or content is ai, they are saying that they believe that a huge percentage of titles have used AI for at least one part of the game, however small. I can absolutely believe it, and I think it’s fine. If you have AI code up the logic for something boring but necessary (the setting screen ui, for one example. Don’t argue against this one example, that isn’t the point) it will leave a developer to work on the parts of games that actually make a difference to the experience. Frankly, it would be silly not to use ai for some things. The trouble is that if it’s a binary “used ai” flag, there is no way to distinguish a one shot Claude slop game from someone who uses AI for internationalization |
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| ▲ | teamonkey 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Steam doesn’t need a AI disclosure label for things that are not player-facing IIRC. | |
| ▲ | alexashka 22 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | It's almost as if people with no power being told to use a thing that's supposed to eliminate their jobs are worried about their jobs. How strange and inexplicable. So unlike every other time people were forced to do things they didn't want to do by the powerful. If only we had access to thousands of freely available books to help us understand. |
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| ▲ | dofm 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The already embattled Fender CEO said the other day that he plans for Fender to be at the "forefront" of AI, and that covering others' songs was "analogue AI". The simple truth of the matter is that contempt for your customers is now normal. I expect this from Fender, now; they are utterly without soul. But D'Addario are really one of the most analogue companies ever and they are still family-owned; they should have understood the magnitude of this problem right at the beginning and just apologised. At least one of my three guitars will likely continue to have their PB strings, probably, because they still sound the best on my cheap Weissenborn clone. But it is very disappointing and it leaves a bad taste. Perhaps I will revisit Rotosounds (wound in a factory very near where I grew up) for my PBs. The UK also has Newtone strings so I really have no reason to continue to support D'Addario (though the low-tension Aloha set I really like for the Weissenborn copy that lets me have a 15 on the high D is always backordered). | | |
| ▲ | tpmoney 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > The already embattled Fender CEO said the other day that he plans for Fender to be at the "forefront" of AI, and that covering others' songs was "analogue AI".
>The simple truth of the matter is that contempt for your customers is now normal. I expect this from Fender, now; they are utterly without soul. I think to some degree this is going to be inevitable for a while. No matter what people think about the ethics of AI or AI use, the fact of the matter is it exists, and it is shaking up and going to shake up a lot of the world. I personally think "AI" isn't really a product anymore than "The Internet" is a product. It's infrastructure in the same way the internet is, or to quote "Halt and Catch Fire", it's "the thing that gets us to The Thing". The problem is no one really knows what The Thing looks like, so everyone is throwing anything they can think of at the wall and hoping to see what sticks. And they're dong this because they remember Sears and they remember Blockbuster. No one wants to be the next company that was positioned perfectly to integrate the new technology into their business model and missed the boat completely for short sightedness or lack of speed. "$foo but with AI" is the current generation's "$foo but on the internet", and everyone is scrambling hard to not be the next company that someone writes a "whatever happened to them" youtube video about. Incidentally, this "AI as infrastructure" view I have is also why I really think governments should be getting into the space of building and distributing training data sets and models. Not only because it could reduce the overall amount of bot scraping and traffic if everyone who wants to build could go to a known good and clean source of training data, but also because nominal usage fees could help manage the copyright concerns. I've pitched it before in more detail, but I imagine something akin to radio broadcast royalty licenses, where people whose copyrighted works are part of the government training sets are paid out "royalties" from the pool of money brought in from licensing the training sets. | | |
| ▲ | dofm 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > I think to some degree this is going to be inevitable for a while. No matter what people think about the ethics of AI or AI use, the fact of the matter is it exists, and it is shaking up and going to shake up a lot of the world. I personally think "AI" isn't really a product anymore than "The Internet" is a product. It's infrastructure in the same way the internet is, or to quote "Halt and Catch Fire", it's "the thing that gets us to The Thing". True. But the way it is approached is an exceptionally valuable yardstick for judging people's intent. There is no way that "being at the forefront of AI" is a strategy that gets Fender anywhere except towards unthinking inward investment. Even in the narrow context of NAM captures and the like, it is clumsily antithetical to their audience to say this. But writing off the one thing that actually sells guitars in the 21st century (covers bands!) as "analogue AI" is the most extraordinarily tone-deaf, rude, dismissive thing that someone who runs a musical instrument company could ever say. | | |
| ▲ | SyneRyder an hour ago | parent [-] | | > writing off the one thing that actually sells guitars in the 21st century (covers bands!) ... I'm not so sure about that. Guitar bands playing original music is huge where I am right now, shoegaze / nugaze / grunge / dreampop is where the zeitgeist is here. As a middle-aged guy who was a teen during grunge, it's heartening to see the 20 year olds now buying Jaguar guitars (and a bunch of pedals) and new bands emerging each week. Everyone is nerding out over their obscure Bandcamp purchases, and it's definitely a thing that you need to write your own original material. The occasional cover is okay, but there's a definite "ick" to being a cover band. "Analogue AI" as a description of playing a cover is harsh, but I can also see some of that label sticking. You didn't write the music or the lyrics, you're taking the credit and money for someone else's work. That seems to be some of the anti-AI attitude around here. But you're right that "the forefront of AI" is not going to appeal to that audience, at all. (Personally I'm pro-AI - not Suno stuff, but I think it will eventually find a place in the same way that synthesizers & sampling & DAWs did, all of which were regarded as cheating at the time they came out. I remember the grunge albums with "AAD" Analog / Analog / Digital printed on the CD sleeve just as Pro Tools was emerging.) | | |
| ▲ | whstl 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I dunno. Fender USA and Squier Jaguars and lots of pedals are for ppl in original bands. But the money is in Custom Shop Gibson, Fender and PRS, which are for ppl in the older generations playing mostly in 70s cover bands, or just hanging it in the wall to occasionally play Smoke on the Water. TheGearPage has become a very influential force in the industry almost like HN has. | | |
| ▲ | SyneRyder 7 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Okay, that's a point - there's less money in the Squier Jaguars even if they sell more of them. I know I personally can't decide on a Squier Jaguar or Vintera, when I know what I really wanted is a Fender Cobain Jaguar. There's more money in the doctors & lawyers accumulating expensive gear that they rarely ever get to play. That said - the few people I know in the "rich kid buying gear" segment are deep into AI, and wouldn't blink twice at using it to generate music for their events. Much of their audience wouldn't necessarily care. The equipment they have is more to show off "here is this expensive thing you can't afford, I have it, I don't even use it". So maybe there's lots of diverse markets and I really don't know how it will play out :) |
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| ▲ | whstl 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | In the late 2010s, the order (literally) from investors was to "hire as many devs as you can". The order now is to position the company somehow as being AI-centric or AI-powered. |
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| ▲ | rdiddly 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Jeeeeezus. It's lies all the way down. Did we ever arrive at a true statement from them or is that where they left it? The irony is how unnecessary it was. They could've just said, yeah you're right, we used AI. This is a level of lying you reserve for covering up a murder or something. Maybe they're just worried (and they're right to be worried) that it's easier to make music with AI than with their strings. | | |
| ▲ | whstl 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Lie and doubling down. And a lot of employees and endorsers fighting people in the comments, and calling people names. Not a good look. |
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| ▲ | 27183 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > The worker claimed it was "his first time using AI" and "he didn't know" This is not the defense they think it is.. If your mechanic rotates your tires and improperly torques the lug bolts "it was my first time using a torque wrench" isn't excusable. It's good to experiment and learn new things. It's not good to throw your little self-study project out into the world with your employer's name behind it and present it as production worthy material. | | |
| ▲ | inigyou 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Before last year, I might've thought it was okay to throw out silly things as advertisements. | |
| ▲ | voxic11 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Do we know if it was the worker who presented it as such? Everyone has to learn and if they are learning on the job its up to their employer to ensure that the work product is reviewed or overseen by someone with adequate experience. | | |
| ▲ | whstl 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | In this case, the author exchanged messages with someone, and he indeed claimed as such, according to the screenshots. |
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| ▲ | axus 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Oh... |
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| ▲ | spacedcowboy 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It's an easy "out" for those without the self-respect to admit when they do wrong. It's like "The computer did it" from the 80's and 90's. Blame the tool for the operator usage. It's pathetic. | |
| ▲ | scotty79 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | People online post timelapses for their AI generated artwork, that are also AI generated. | | |
| ▲ | the_af 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I've been thinking about this. Almost every way we have to tell human from AI apart can be adopted and automated by AI. It's sort of a corollary of "every metric can be gamed". It's disheartening for those of us who intrinsically value human authorship. |
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| ▲ | duped 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | What bothers me about the D'Addario thing is that it never crossed the mind of that employee or the company what they're doing was wrong. Their customers are musicians. They want to hear what the strings sound like in a demo. What they did was not just dishonest, it's contrary to literally everything their customers do. Whoever did it has no sense and shouldn't be working in that business. Full stop. I say this as a D'Addario customer of 20+ years that will never buy their strings again. | | |
| ▲ | whstl an hour ago | parent [-] | | Marketing has become so disconnected from reality that such things have been normalized and trivialized. For example: since a few years now, it became extremely common for apps and games to be advertised with fake screenshots, fake gameplay, and fake interactions. AI just put all that on turbo mode. A marketing manager coming from apps/games (or other industry where this is common) joining D'addario will just push for AI music to be used because "that's how things are done". |
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| ▲ | Aurornis 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > It then turned out that the developer forgot to mention that originally he did upload an astrology app for review. Gruber felt duped, and noted that it's unclear whether an updated build containing the new astronomy app was ever submitted to Apple for review I think it’s shaping up like he didn’t “forget” to mention it. This looks like an intentional play for attention. It worked very well. Too well, in fact, which drew enough eyes on to the situation to start noticing the cracks in his story. A key part of the Gruber retraction article is that Apple rejected a different app named Asterly. He then copied the Dark Hours app, including the name, from someone else and tried to imply that was the app at the center of the controversy. If he had actually written his own astronomy app and swapped it into the story he may have gotten away with it. Doing the wholesale copying of someone else’s work, including the name of the project and stripping the license in the process, is what got him caught. App Store rejection stories are always popular. I see at least one post a month on Hacker News from an app developer trying to get attention because their app was rejected and it usually receives moderate social media attention. I think this person saw an opportunity to ride that anger for some personal publicity and went for it. He flew too close to the sun and got too much attention, though, so his mistruths were revealed. Now he’s trying some CYA techniques because the original ruse backfired. | | |
| ▲ | qarl2 an hour ago | parent [-] | | And this, friends, is why blogs are the source of so much disinformation. They look professional, the writers seem smart, and yet they will say the dumbest shit. Shame on you Gruber. Not cool. EDIT: HEH. I guess Gruber still has a lot of fans on HN. | | |
| ▲ | dewey an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | This has nothing to do with Gruber fans or not. Your take just isn't as smart as you thought it is. Highly regarded newspapers, tv programs or books have updates / retractions all the time as even with the best fact checking it's possible that something slips through. | | |
| ▲ | qarl2 an hour ago | parent [-] | | They also have fact checkers, which would have caught this error instantly before people were deceived. EDIT: It's not nice to change your comment after it's been replied to. | | |
| ▲ | dewey 44 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I've only changed "redactions" into "updates / retractions" as that was a typo. Please take a look at https://www.nytimes.com/international/section/corrections for a small selection of what slips through fact checking on a well established and reputable newspaper. | | |
| ▲ | qarl2 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I don't doubt that massive organizations make a lot of errors. I don't think it makes your point, tho. The question is error per volume. I seriously doubt Gruber does the same amount of fact checking as a serious publication. And that was my point above. But I could be wrong - if you actually know I'd love the answer. | | |
| ▲ | dewey 18 minutes ago | parent [-] | | If your question is if a single person running a private blog has the same fact checking resources as a big news corporation, the answer is no but I'm not sure why you'd need me to tell you that. As mentioned in Gruber's retraction (https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje...) it's the first time he had to retract something in 24 years. It doesn't really make sense to compare the two in any case as the stakes and resources are very different. | | |
| ▲ | qarl2 11 minutes ago | parent [-] | | No, my question is whether the per-story fact checking is equal, or much less. I suspect it's much less. Do you know otherwise? |
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| ▲ | mtlynch an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | How is this Gruber's fault? What level of verification do you expect of a tech blog discussing the experience of another tech blogger? | | |
| ▲ | qarl2 an hour ago | parent [-] | | When you spread disinformation you should bear the cost of it. Gruber has a massive audience. He should try harder. | | |
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| ▲ | SamBam 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Also note that Goodier's post that kicked off Gruber's post now says it had a section about "an astronomy app I am working on that began as an astrology app," [1] but the older version of the article clearly implied that the author was baffled as to why Apple would ever think it related to Tarot cards. [2] 1. https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/07/browsers-have-standa... 2. https://web.archive.org/web/20260807141155/https://blog.terr... | |
| ▲ | sellmesoap 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Maybe our attention is being farmed? I have a friend who does astrology readings for a living and was curious why the app store doesn't allow astrology apps, a quick search revealed astrology apps exist on the app store so that's a red herring. | | |
| ▲ | Aurornis 16 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | In app categories that bring a lot of low-effort submissions and clones, Apple requires new submissions to bring something new to the table. Before these requirements the app store was filling up with thousands of flashlight apps, todo lists, and other simple apps that people would build (or clone) to get something into the app store. | |
| ▲ | runtime_terror 14 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If you read the related articles you'd see the App Store has decided there are enough of these types of apps and they don't accept any more unless they're noticeably different | |
| ▲ | arsan87 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | They simply do not allow new astrology apps. They consider the market segment saturated. | | |
| ▲ | sellmesoap 40 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Oh but mine will be tron/blade runner themed, the market needs more diversity, the insensative clauds! |
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| ▲ | mortenjorck 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | OP or dang should change the link to the DF retraction. While the app’s author has apparently produced some quality products, this puts a big asterisk next to that reputation. | | | |
| ▲ | ChrisMarshallNY 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That's interesting. I had originally posted a "this dude is classy" comment, and may repost, but I'd like to find out more, beforehand. Are there any links to this stuff that you can share? [UPDATED] Ah. I see this post has it[0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49231394 | | |
| ▲ | user43928 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | I did not look into the details myself, but here are the links to the previous post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49228166 | | |
| ▲ | ChrisMarshallNY 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | I know that not everyone is thrilled with Gruber, but I think this is classy (from his article): > To the best of my recollection, this is the first post I’ve retracted in the 24 years I’ve been writing Daring Fireball. I hope it’s the last. I was misled, both overtly and through omissions, in several ways, but what I publish is my responsibility, and I apologize for the error. | | |
| ▲ | sersi 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Gruner is a true fan and tends to be overly positive about Apple but I don't doubt his integrity for a second. In cases when his reporting is overly favorable to Apple in my eyes, I do believe that he truly believes what he says. | | |
| ▲ | whstl 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | It was interesting that his first retraction was due to a post being critical of Apple. Not that there hasn't been other critical posts, but he's very positive about the brand. | | |
| ▲ | maratc 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Gruber himself has written a number of posts critical of Apple, some of them scathingly so. | | |
| ▲ | simonw 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yeah, any time I see someone accuse Gruber of being universally positive about Apple I think they can't have been reading his work very often. Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino: https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_th... Apple subsequently stopped providing Apple execs for his annual live podcast recording at WWDC. They don't confirm it was because of that piece (unsurprisingly) but it seems very likely it was. | |
| ▲ | ChrisMarshallNY 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Anyone that has been in the Apple ecosystem, for any length of time, has been insanely pissed off at them -usually, multiple times. They are a pretty arrogant megacorp, and tend to make decisions that primarily benefit themselves. But I generally have a positive relationship with them. |
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| ▲ | kstrauser 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I fully agree. That’s how you own a mistake. |
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| ▲ | natch 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I’ve noticed that when a developer cries foul over an Apple App Store rejection, it often seems to be a red flag that there is something fishy about that developer. Gruber, not to his credit, often does not give Apple the benefit of the doubt on these matters. imho he bears some responsibility if he feels duped. | |
| ▲ | VladVladikoff 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | >The original is here: https://darkhours.app Ooof that is a terrible dark mode theme. | | | |
| ▲ | tremon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps That's curious. What legitimate-sounding reason could Apple have to reject astrology on their platform? Isn't this exactly the kind of discrimination against fields of endeavour that would make a slam-dunk case for any antitrust enforcement? | | |
| ▲ | user43928 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | A few years ago there were horoscope apps with a 3-day free trial, then pay per week subscriptions, that had tens of thousands of suspicious 5 star reviews. Some of them even made it into the top 20 grossing apps on the store. All the reviews with text would complain about accidentally subscribing. Apple was earning a 30% commission on those subscriptions. | |
| ▲ | avazhi a minute ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The same reason apple could reasonably block people from selling anything with an easily falsifiable claim: misleading consumers is bad, and apps that are misleading aren’t allowed. That already exists. Telling people you can tell them their future based on the stars is demonstrably misleading lol. | |
| ▲ | throwaway219450 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Only new submissions seem to be banned because Apple says there are too many. Clearly there are loads if you search the App Store. Gruber quotes and I re-quote: > Certain kinds of apps, such as dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers, and fortune telling, are well established on the App Store and we will not accept new submissions unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience. We may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract customers. Other kinds of apps, such as drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart, and burp apps, are mediocre, low-quality, or low-effort and do not add value to the App Store. | |
| ▲ | zymhan 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Isn't this exactly the kind of discrimination against fields of endeavour that would make a slam-dunk case for any antitrust enforcement? No. | |
| ▲ | dd8601fn 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | They don’t prohibit them. There are categories of app that already have 100 trillion low effort copy-paste slop apps. In those categories, Apple applies a more stringent “must demonstrate some real differentiation” criteria. They also prune those categories of existing apps more aggressively. It’s fair to wonder what counts, and how uniformly they apply it, but the motivation is not, “no astrology apps.” This guy pumped out slop for a high-slop category. It got rejected. That’s where it started. All the bullshit and lies from everyone snowballed from that. |
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| ▲ | budsniffer952 40 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | And blames it on "AI usage". | |
| ▲ | frenchtoast8 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I’m struggling to see how this wasn’t intentional by Godier, but I can’t understand what he was hoping to get out of it. Surely the truth would have come out eventually. Was one day of fame worth it? | |
| ▲ | quietsegfault 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | We are personally responsible for what our agents do. I don’t know why someone thinks “oops Claude did it” is a valid excuse. | |
| ▲ | bossyTeacher 32 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | afaik apple store doesn't prohibit astrology apps. You just can't have cookie cutter astrology apps. I believe dating apps have the same rule. | |
| ▲ | arjie 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Oh I recall this story now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49214863 I, too, feel entirely duped. What the heck dude. Uploading an astrology app that later pivoted to astronomy and having that be rejected for astrology is a way different problem from just having the latter rejected for astrology. Thanks for drawing the chain. Infuriating. | | |
| ▲ | the_af 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | If I understand the story correctly, it's even worse than "pivoted to astronomy". He used Claude to "accidentally" (doubtful) copy an existing astronomy app, bugs and all. It's like a pile of dishonesty upon dishonesty. |
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| ▲ | yzydserd 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Grubby. | |
| ▲ | lern_too_spel 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | And Gruber, being Gruber, says that this guy's RSS reader is so good that it would prevent people from switching to Android. Sure. | | |
| ▲ | dewey 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > David Pierce, at The Verge, put it on a very short list of iOS-exclusive indie apps that keep him from switching to Android. You are misattributing a quote. | | |
| ▲ | lern_too_spel 41 minutes ago | parent [-] | | That quote that you posted is from Gruber. Gruber chose to include that in his blog post to say that this app is so good that it keeps people, including Pierce, from switching to Android. I was obviously fully aware that he paraphrased somebody else to include as evidence to support his claim. Pierce, on the other hand, was speaking only for himself. | | |
| ▲ | dewey 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Choosing to include a properly attributed quote in a blog post is very different to saying something yourself. | | |
| ▲ | lern_too_spel 34 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Once more, Gruber is the one who claimed that the app kept people from switching to Android by paraphrasing (not quoting) Pierce. Pierce spoke only for himself. You are trying to pick a nit that doesn't exist. |
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| ▲ | InsideOutSanta 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Something went seriously wrong there, and I'm not sure it's just Claude copying an existing project bug-for-bug. For more context, see also this post from Gruber at Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje... |
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| ▲ | firasd 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yeah... If you even say to Claude I want to make an app like github.com/user/repo it's not gonna just clone it and do some touch ups. Anything can happen of course, but my spidey sense says generally AI won't fork a project unasked (just because of the implied maintenance burden of applying future patches from upstream if nothing else) | | |
| ▲ | vikramkr 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yeah - the whole Claude did it thing here reads to me like blaming a grammar issue on an LLM. Yes they have their issues but this isn't one of them - they're not deterministic they aren't going to make the exact same bug as a project you never heard of unless it's a specific technical shortcoming/training data gap/skill issue of the model. If you say "I want something exactly like xyz in every way" though then sure - but you're claiming you never asked for that? Not passing the sniff test here | |
| ▲ | supriyo-biswas 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I have tried this with Codex, and if you ask it to implement a project based on an algorithm or design in a given repo, it always puts an attribution link saying that part of it was adapted from that repo. Unfortunately I think we’re being duped here. | |
| ▲ | mft_ 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Also, Claude has the habit of finding and fixing bugs without being asked - for example, in code that an earlier version of itself wrote. So while you can never be sure, there's a non-zero chance that even if it had copied the original code it would have found and fixed the accidental trap. |
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| ▲ | chuckadams 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yeah, the big bad AI made you plagiarize a whole project down to the name, and lie to everyone about the review process. Not buying any of it. |
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| ▲ | ceejayoz 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > down to the name And an identical bug, per the Bluesky convo Gruber linked. https://bsky.app/profile/mmmeh.bsky.social/post/3mslc3b3u4c2... | |
| ▲ | CircuitSeuss 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Why not? There have been quite a few copyright cases alleging this behavior that LLMs are not substantially transformative[1]. Note that cases have largely been ruled in the favor of the AI companies, with courts ruling that model output is “substantially transformative” of training material (although what is currently legally permissible may not be what we feel is socially permissible or ethical). The the fact that these allegations continue to be made, and the fact that AI companies seem to be trying to cover their asses by disallowing prompts which would be likely to create content highly similar to that of copyrighted training material [2] might be enough to at least warrant some consideration that Godier is being honest here. Not that this would absolve Godier (quite the opposite in my mind- low effort ai workflows produce slop, and he chose this intentionally), but perhaps some of the onerousness here also falls on the AI companies pillaging of work. [1] https://copyrightalliance.org/ai-copyright-lawsuit-developme...
E.g. https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2023/12/NYT_Complaint_Dec20... [2] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/chatgpt-stops-cloning-fam... | |
| ▲ | K0balt 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | And it’s even more stupid because he just could have asked Claude to build it from scratch. I mean, it’s not
Rocket science and all of the resources needed are in the public domain. It would be done in 3 days. 4 hours if you want to ship hot garbage. | | |
| ▲ | ChrisMarshallNY 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > 4 hours if you want to ship hot garbage. That seems to be the thing everyone is into, these days. |
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| ▲ | glaslong 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | "The dog plagiarized my homework" |
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| ▲ | mark_l_watson 25 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| He did the right thing. The very idea of Claude copying an existing project to answer one of my prompts or a whole project in Claude Code is a nightmare scenario. I have all but given up using the multiple trillion weight models in favor of smaller open weight models that have hopefully abstracted away copyrightable details. Right now deepseek-v4-flash-0731 seems usually perfect for my needs. I saw Cees de Groot post about LLM vibe coded projects containing all sorts of licensed material, and I think he is correct. Perhaps another good reason to just use the AGPL for new projects? I decided to use the AGPL for may latest fun project https://github.com/mark-watson/racket-coding-agent (personal AI coding harness written for my own use in Racket Scheme). Everything I do is open source or open content books, so I am happy to have everything I do to be used by humans and also for AI training, however: it is scary to by mistake be in the position of not acknowledging other work when appropriate. |
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| ▲ | mechanicum 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I’d love to see the other repo, and the prompts that led to both. Did Godier copy the other guy’s repo, name and all, and try to pass it off as his own work? That seems like the obvious conclusion, albeit brazen to the point of insanity. Did Claude copy the repo, in response to a prompt? If Claude copies a Claude vibe-coded project, can any plagiarism really be said to have taken place? Or is this just what Claude is statistically likely to spit out if you prompt it to build an astronomy app and leave it to it? |
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| ▲ | Aurornis 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This is the Bluesky thread that Gruber linked where the original author calls out the copy: https://bsky.app/profile/mmmeh.bsky.social/post/3mslc3b3u4c2... You can trace back to the original repo from that thread. The key points are that the copy had 1. The same name. One was "Dark Hours" and the other was "DarkHours". 2. The same highly specific bug. I didn't investigate closely but from the description the bug sounds too unique to have been identically created in a fresh Claude-style duplication. The duplicated name is the most damning part to me. I've never tried to copy a project with Claude, but I can't imagine the sequence of events that would lead to Claude copying the name of a repo but going to lengths to disguise other things like stripping the license. This all seems highly intentional, like someone thought it would never be noticed. | | |
| ▲ | mechanicum 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I’ve seen the original repo, I mean Godier’s. A name clash is the least damning evidence in my opinion. Last year my previous employer asked us for suggestions for naming an AI agent. Everyone produced pretty much the same list, because everyone just asked ChatGPT. Except me. I had also asked ChatGPT, but I bothered to google the suggestions and found there were already like half a dozen AI agents for every suggestion. (they ultimately launched what was by then the 7th or 8th AI-related product with essentially the same name) Creativity in naming doesn’t seem to be their strongest suit. |
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| ▲ | kaycey2022 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If the copying was deliberate then why admit to the similarity? He should have just blocked the guy and continued as if nothing was wrong. Admitting the plagiarisation lead to a worse outcome every time. |
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| ▲ | cube00 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's not much of a mea culpa when there's not even a mention, let alone an apology, for misleading John Gruber. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49228166 |
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| ▲ | pohl 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Fun and useful PR jargon to describe what this post smells like: a “limited hangout”. (a damage-control strategy where an organization or individual admits to a portion of a secret or scandal after a cover story fails, while still hiding the most damaging key facts.) |
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| ▲ | msdz 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It’s really pitiful, because I was ready to leave a comment saying how actual apologies and taking responsibility have gotten rather rare (mostly because they leave the publishing party with lasting feelings of cringe/shame/other consequences), wanting to applaud at least that among this mess; but then reading on I got the same impression. An LLM/agent harness generally doesn’t just claim another project wholesale, including specific bugs, as the base of your idea, unless you ask it to. | |
| ▲ | Aurornis 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Interesting! I had never heard that phrase before. The words are non-intuitive, but that's exactly what's happening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout Now that you've introduced the phrase I can see it in a lot of recent scandals. Peter Attia, a popular health and longevity podcaster who was revealed to have substantial ties to Jeffrey Epstein used this exact trick recently. When the Epstein e-mails were released it was discovered that he continued to consort with Epstein after all of the revelations. Even worse, he talked to Epstein about the fallout from the accusations and continued to cozy up to him. He was trying to run a very expensive concierge medical clinic and relied on Epstein's connections to get more clients, so he wanted to continue keeping that relationship warm. When the e-mails came out he issued a public non-apology that implied he had no idea about any of Epstein's activities. It was plausible enough if you never saw the actual e-mails and thought Epstein was just another contact in his network, but the actual e-mails revealed that he was continuing to converse with Epstein after the revelations, including about the revelations! So "limited hangout" is precisely what he and his PR team tried to execute. It seems to have worked on a limited set of his fan base who still try to downplay his Epstein connections to this day. The e-mails are easy to find, though. | | |
| ▲ | Nevermark 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > [...] a “limited hangout”. >> The words are non-intuitive Yeah. "Incomplete mea culpa", "Incomplete admission", "Incomplete penance", "Incomplete contrition", "Incomplete remorse", actually say "the thing" instead of using a new random phrase. I like "incomplete contrition" or "gas light remorse". | | |
| ▲ | pohl 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I suppose it could be that if one’s intent is to mislead, then obfuscating the name of a technique specifically meant for that purpose is a feature, not a bug. | |
| ▲ | Aurornis 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > actually say "the thing" instead of using a new random phrase Apparently the phrase is very old, pre-dating the internet. It came out of the CIA. In this context hangout is a clipped form of "letting it all hang out" So it's saying you're putting on the appearance of letting it all hang out, but the information revealed is limited. | |
| ▲ | detourdog an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think it's based on the phrase hung out to dry. This is a limited hangout where you may still be damp. |
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| ▲ | jv22222 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Going forward, I won’t be using AI in this way to create any more web stuff, and I do not use it to anything close to this extent on iOS software. 'comon now, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. That's a bit of an scorched earth extreme response imho. |
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| ▲ | fitsumbelay 13 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Setting aside everything except the stated intention behind the author's post -- ie. to make right something that he could only conclude was wrong after a little education -- what if agentic dev was removed from the equation and he made a similar app anyway? I understand that using agentic led to specific glitchy things like the recreation of an exact same bug arising from the exact same code which may -- very likely, actually, in cases where one of a narrow set of best practices (or dogma) are (blindly) followed -- or may not happen if you're building similar apps. A lot of people have a lot of the same ideas and the few from that set who actually pursue their goal will likely end up with similar products built with and operate using fairly similar patterns. What then? What if it's an improvement on the original? Like a vast improvement? Does a Pepsi or Burger King tell Coca Cola or McDonalds "You got it dawg ...", disrobe, hand over all their assets and find some place to die alone? |
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| ▲ | joshuat 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I cannot fathom so thoroughly torching your own reputation (a quite positive one at that) in such a short period of time |
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| ▲ | dwedge 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I was careless in relying on AI [...] That’s on me This was a beautiful ending |
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| ▲ | drdrey 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | "that's on me" just sounds like Claude is doing the talking |
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| ▲ | mvkel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This reads similar to a politician saying "I was hacked!" when embarrassing texts leak. |
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| ▲ | parasti an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > web app I had launched using Claude was strikingly similar to his open source project, even reproducing a bug he had later fixed, How? How do I prompt to get a literal copy of another app? When Claude/Gemini builds anything for me I have a thousand ideas for functionality improvements and UI/UX changes. How do you just stop at v1 of what Claude gives you? |
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| ▲ | IndySun 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is awful. I went on a deep dive on Terrys site after that post. Full of sage advice, decent rss ideas, the astronomy page and the website, the options, colors all look fantastic. Not a good day for Terry. |
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| ▲ | cube00 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I don't know, bloggers who publish teases in their feed frustrate me. https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/05/24/ive-been-a-little-di... | |
| ▲ | mikestew 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Full of sage advice, decent rss ideas, the astronomy page and the website, the options, colors all look fantastic. And how much of that is original with the blog author? Previously, one might have just given them the benefit of the doubt, as it should be. But now it swings the other way, and I'll assume that the author not only doesn't have an original thought in their head, they'll lie to cover their ass, too. |
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| ▲ | cadamsdotcom 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This person's name is Terry Godier, just in case you ever come across them. Until some remorse is shown, the name shall remain radioactive. |
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| ▲ | superdisk 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Isn't this post him showing remorse? There's really no reason to burn the guy at the stake. | | | |
| ▲ | slim 18 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | is there evidence that this person is real ? | | |
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| ▲ | NikxDa 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The thing that stands out to me with all of this is how little accountability there is left within the field. Published a rip-off? "Sorry, Claude must have done this". Published a shitty/wrong/insensitive/<insert other adjectives here> post somewhere? "Sorry, the AI wrote it" Regardless of how we view LLMs as a whole, if you produce content with AI and publish it, you personally own every line of what you published. "Claude did it" cannot ever be a valid excuse. |
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| ▲ | willtemperley 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > "Claude did it" cannot ever be a valid excuse. I think this an incredibly important point. As soon as we devolve reposnsiblity to computer progams, society cedes control to the algorithm vendors. Jeff Geerling was called out today for his clickbaity video entitled "Intel just matched Apple Silicon. Seriously.". Jeff's personal response was "I had three YouTube titles, this one got about 2x the watch time as the other two, so I let YT pick it." Another commenter replied: "You are trying to launder responsibility for a clickbait title to a computer program." I think this exactly nailed the problem. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49223079 | | |
| ▲ | thraway3837 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | It's funny, I saw that YT video in my feed and instantly was turned off from ever wanting to click on it. I know there is a write up about it, so I'd rather read than watch. Esp knowing what I know now. | |
| ▲ | slopinthebag an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | What a funny thread. Probably not a great first impression for potential viewers |
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| ▲ | MrDrone 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I think it's time to bring back the IBM classic. > A computer can never be held accountable. Therefore a computer must never make a management decision | | |
| ▲ | padjo an hour ago | parent [-] | | I think we're at the point where people are making the opposite conclusion from the premise: Let's let the computer make the decision because then we can't be held accountable. |
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| ▲ | cube00 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | My favorite is when they're clearly caught out so they move on to trying to minimise the use and optionally passively aggressively turn it back on you. "I was genuinely only using Claude to make my writing clearer/redraft/to organize my thoughts because I can't write as well as you can" The new one for me this week was someone claiming they write exactly like Claude does. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49212416 | | |
| ▲ | BalinKing 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | There are enough grammatical oddities (e.g. "reads off", "my not-the-proudest") in the linked excerpt that I'm honestly inclined to believe them. |
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| ▲ | classictraffic 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Wow, this is a genuinely crazy situation. I also have doubts that Claude can be prompted to wholesale copy an open source project like this, so I'm really curious to see receipts from Terry (session history, commits) |
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| ▲ | blitzar 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I wish we lived in a society where bullshitting your way through a Mea Culpa would have consequences, but sadly I suspect someone is going to "punish" this one by giving them a top job or funding some equally bullshit startup. |
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| ▲ | mikestew 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Certainly, this isn't going to be career-ending, as it should. No, someone with just as few morals as OP will say to themselves, "just the kind of person I was looking for!", and the failing up begins. |
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| ▲ | firasd 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| So the thing that drove this person to Gruber et al's notice is an RSS Reader that doesn't count how many new items are pending? It's the kind of thing that can get you significant mindshare among the last few people who use RSS readers and have disproportionate impact on the discourse apparently |
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| ▲ | maratc 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This whole affair seriously undermines Terry's credibility, however it needs to be said that his take on how RSS readers should work is genuinely new and -- to some audiences -- interesting. It's as if real people are not all good or all bad, but can do good things, and bad things too. | | |
| ▲ | rafterydj 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Do you utilize RSS? I've been trying to find a good RSS reader that incorporates some of the ideas his advocates, but I prefer Linux. Right now I'm using Thunderbird for it, but I'd love a good recommendation! |
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| ▲ | vickychijwani 44 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don’t particularly buy the author’s story here, but “doesn’t count how many new items are pending” is a feature for me. I don’t want my RSS reader to feel like yet another list of tasks I’ve to get through. |
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| ▲ | jmull 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This current story is likely just the latest lie. |
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| ▲ | huebnerob 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Even with all these revelations, there’s still something so weird about this whole story. To go from crafting such a strong, principled app as Current to conjuring an AI-slop-fueled false narrative around an astrology app is such a wild swing in respectability. |
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| ▲ | satvikpendem 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I posted this post to HN after seeing someone else link it in a recent thread, and I'll repeat what I said there: I find this synopsis very hard to believe, seems he's shifting blame onto an LLM instead of taking responsibility for his actions. He said he'd significantly alter the feature set, so why didn't that happen? That's a single prompt to Claude. He more than likely just told the LLM to clone the repo and ship it as is, not actually working on it in any capacity. In that case it wasn't the AI "reproducing" a bug as there was no reproduction in the first place. |
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| ▲ | simonw 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The bigger issue here is that he mislead (I think lied to, personally) John Gruber to the point that Gruber had to issue his first retraction in 25 years: https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje... |
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| ▲ | lern_too_spel 25 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Gruber himself has misled his readers without a retraction for many years, but this one he gets to blame on someone else, so it's no skin off his back. |
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| ▲ | barbazoo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's fine to build these apps that are clones of other's in my opinion but don't start publishing it for fame or fortune. Be humble, the computer did pretty much all of the work for you. |
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| ▲ | avazhi 5 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You came up with an app with the same name that does the same thing down to having the same bug? Nah. This is marketing. Get this shit outta here. |
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| ▲ | none_to_remain 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| So Claude spit out similar code in response to similar prompts? Did Claude also suggest the same name twice? |
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| ▲ | jaronilan 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| "I know where my code came from — but where did all you zombie's code come from?"
-- Temporal Code Agent (from All You Zombies, by Robert A. Heineken, 2026, ebook) |
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| ▲ | ciupicri 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I’d like to give credit where credit is due. ... but I'm not going to insert a link to his project - https://github.com/mbeher2200/DarkHours |
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| ▲ | prodigycorp 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | he redirected the domain darkhours.io to darkhours.app. seems pretty fair | | |
| ▲ | cube00 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > seems pretty fair Until 1st August 2027 when the domain will expire (I doubt Terry will keep paying for the domain) leaving those users who memorised the .io version stranded. You'll note they only redirected it, they didn't offer to transfer the domain. | | |
| ▲ | progval an hour ago | parent [-] | | And they're using a temporary redirect (HTTP 302) so browsers won't automatically redirect users when this happens. |
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| ▲ | scotty79 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Going forward, I won’t be using AI in this way to create any more web stuff, and I do not use it to anything close to this extent on iOS software That's a terrible lesson. It's an open source app. Tell you agent to fork it an contribute to it if you have any ideas that might improve it. You don't want to build castles anymore if you don't own the whole sandbox? |
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| ▲ | bronlund 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Claude did it! XD |
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| ▲ | CircuitSeuss 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If you needed another reason to hate low effort vibe coding… “It became clear to me that the web app I had launched using Claude was strikingly similar to his open source project, even reproducing a bug he had later fixed.” At what point do we confront the reality that premier AI models are blatant copyright violation machines through and through? |
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| ▲ | Philpax 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | When we have evidence that that's what actually happened and it's not the known-deceitful author trying to cover their own arse again? |
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| ▲ | eviks 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Since the other app is also heavily vibe-coded, it wouldn't make sense to kill your own, so I guess in reality this is questionable? > While I had genuinely never seen DarkHours.app before yesterday If only there were a way to share your own commits resulting from your own Claude sessions to verify whether it's true... |
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| ▲ | satvikpendem 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Well if the other app was vibe coded I guess technically there was no copyright to it at all, ironic to talk about stealing in that case. I don't care about either party here so don't construe this comment as defending the author but I find the situation amusing with the current copyright laws. | | |
| ▲ | derdi 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Nobody mentioned copyrights or stealing in this thread. | | |
| ▲ | derdi 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Haha, excellent downvote, thanks. I stand corrected, one other person mentioned the word "copyright" in the time between me searching the discussion for that term, and then writing and posting. There is some copyright discussion on one of the other submissions on this topic. | | |
| ▲ | satvikpendem 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes not in this thread but in the other submissions lots of people said the author was "stealing" the code but turns out the MIT original wasn't even eligible to be under that license as it has no copyright. |
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| ▲ | _HMCB_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Dude, Daring Fireball’s post really shed a light on this matter. Your post here seems like you’re hiding a lot more. |
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| ▲ | underdeserver 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The author's alleged misdeeds aside, even before AI, there were lots of small projects that were similar to one another. I don't think that's a bad thing, or that it's necessarily plagiarism - unless the LLM spews out the other project's code from its training... I'm happy to see multiple takes on the same idea. There are lots of tiny aesthetic and functional decisions that make apps different from one another. Now that implementation is cheaper we should celebrate that. |
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| ▲ | thraway3837 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Terry Godier is a liar and a thief. That's all there is to it. |
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| ▲ | llm_nerd 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It is simply amazing that the "the AI ate my homework" routine works on anyone. Like, a single person out there actually falls for this hilarious nonsense? The AI eating his homework wasn't even the worst of it, and this whole debacle is just a series of poor decisions and deceptions. Bizarre. Yet there are comments in here praising his "attitude". Can I interest you fine folks in the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm selling it for 40% off, today only. Message me. |
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| ▲ | timcobb 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Bizarre. This is easily the most casually bizarre HN saga that I've experienced... | |
| ▲ | fragmede 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Can't, you don't list an email address on your profile. He fucked up and is owning up to it. Sure we all wish it never happened in the first place, but since he did, we prefer he confess rather than double down and go on offense or something else. The AI didn't "eat his homework". He's not a student, this wasn't a homework assignment. | | |
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| ▲ | hnlb53nrpg 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Great breakdown |
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| ▲ | gtowey 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Kudos to the author for taking responsibility and doing the ethical thing here. |
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| ▲ | iansmith_hn 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'll give him credit for taking responsibility, but I have to admit that Claude had nothing to do with the issue. You could have taken somebody else's project with a few uses of curl and git. There may be many things wrong with Claude or even AI in general, but this isn't one of them. |
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| ▲ | lellow 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I love the attitude. Period. And I also understand his personal decision to not use it to create mobile apps, as mentioned. But, I would not follow the same route. There are several open source projects, and just because models were trained with their code, it shouldn’t stop me of creating something similar/better, with my “taste” (from another post this week) in mind. We are all different. We should have different options. I fully support open-source, but I support way more the creativity and idea from individuals that can generate something new. |
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| ▲ | overtone1000 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That would be true with or without AI. That isn't what happened here. Open source isn't just code, it's an idea, a public square, and a community. Fork a repo and customize to your heart's content? Go for it! Fork a repo, change nothing substantial, and publish it with a nearly identical name in the app store and on a nearly identical domain? At the very least, that's in poor taste. | |
| ▲ | ryan_n 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The dude had claude copy a repo bug for bug. Where is the "taste" and "creativity" in that? > I fully support open-source, but I support way more the creativity and idea from individuals that can generate something new. None of that happened here... |
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