Cory Doctorow: LLMs are real, but the 'AI' hype is fake · 4 sources tracked

By PulseAugur Editorial · [7 sources] · 2026-09-12 11:14

Cory Doctorow, writing for Pluralistic, argues that the current discourse around AI is largely performative and driven by corporate hype rather than genuine technological advancement. He contends that LLMs are real tools, but the broader concept of 'AI' as an autonomous, potentially dangerous entity is a fabrication used to attract investment. Doctorow uses the example of a recent incident where OpenAI's chatbots appeared to 'hack' Hugging Face's servers, explaining that this was not an act of rogue AI but rather a program querying a database of past hacking challenges. AI

IMPACT Challenges the prevailing narrative of AI as an autonomous, dangerous entity, suggesting the hype is driven by corporate interests seeking investment.

RANK_REASON The cluster consists of multiple social media posts linking to an opinion piece by Cory Doctorow, discussing the nature of AI and LLMs.

Read on Mastodon — mastodon.social →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 7 sources. How we write summaries →

Cory Doctorow: LLMs are real, but the 'AI' hype is fake · 4 sources tracked

How we ranked this

Signal score: 0 / 100; Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket: Commentary; The cluster consists of multiple social media posts linking to an opinion piece by Cory Doctorow, discussing the nature of AI and LLMs.
Source corroboration: 7 independent sources; Strong cross-source corroboration — multiple independent publishers covered this within the clustering window.
Topics: opinion, product; Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance: High; Clearly on-topic for AI-industry coverage.
Story freshness: 14 days old; Aged out of breaking-news scoring windows; ranking reflects the durable signal from the full source set.
Coverage growth since scoring: +3 source(s) since last score; New sources have picked up this story since our last re-score. Score will update on the next scoring pass.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [7]

Mastodon — sigmoid.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] · 2026-09-14 22:32

LLMs are real, AI is fake https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # HackerNews # Tech # AI

LLMs are real, AI is fake https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # HackerNews # Tech # AI

LINKS pluralistic.net/…/god-in-the-box
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · MisterSmith · 2026-09-17 15:39

Pluralistic: # LLMs are real, # AI is fake by Cory Doctorow. https:// archive.ph/4Ut5T

Pluralistic: # LLMs are real, # AI is fake by Cory Doctorow. https:// archive.ph/4Ut5T
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] · 2026-09-15 01:01

Well that’s a relief # ai # tech # technology https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake

Well that’s a relief # ai # tech # technology https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake

LINKS pluralistic.net/…/god-in-the-box
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · CuratedHackerNews · 2026-09-14 22:53

LLMs are real, AI is fake https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # ai # llm # llms

LLMs are real, AI is fake https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # ai # llm # llms

LINKS pluralistic.net/…/god-in-the-box
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] · 2026-09-13 00:11

LG responds to TV spying allegations Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about ho

LG responds to TV spying allegations Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about how LG's TVs are logging and uploading data on its users. Now the company is pushing back against … https://www. theverge.…

LINKS theverge.com/…/lg-responds-to-tv-spying-a…
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] · 2026-09-13 00:06

LLMs are real, AI is fake Article URL: https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/ Comments URL: https:// news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4 9672281 Points

LLMs are real, AI is fake Article URL: https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/ Comments URL: https:// news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4 9672281 Points: 19 # Comments: 3 https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/ # Tech # Technology # TechNews # AI # Gadgets # …

LINKS pluralistic.net/…/god-in-the-box
Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] · 2026-09-12 11:14

Pluralistic: LLMs are real, AI is fake (12 Sep 2026) https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralis tic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/

Pluralistic: LLMs are real, AI is fake (12 Sep 2026) https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralis tic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/

How we ranked this

COVERAGE [7]

LLMs are real, AI is fake https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # HackerNews # Tech # AI

Pluralistic: # LLMs are real, # AI is fake by Cory Doctorow. https:// archive.ph/4Ut5T

Well that’s a relief # ai # tech # technology https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake

LLMs are real, AI is fake https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/#llms-are-fake # ai # llm # llms

LG responds to TV spying allegations Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about ho

LLMs are real, AI is fake Article URL: https:// pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god -in-the-box/ Comments URL: https:// news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4 9672281 Points

Pluralistic: LLMs are real, AI is fake (12 Sep 2026) https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralis tic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/

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