I give up; the people who embraced AI won.

A UK web developer published a satirical piece against AI hype, claiming that generative AI is “99% hype,” that Sora’s output is “not even as good as NFTs,” and that major tech giants are hollowing out creators’ souls with a casino-style business model. He calls on everyone to go back to blogs, back to the open web, and to refuse to be an accomplice to the cloud con artists.
(Background: OpenAI revealed that “the AI bubble is bursting”: Sora shut down, Disney pulled out $1 billion, the Pentagon controversy, and a $11.5 billion loss in a single quarter)
(Additional background: a16 feature story: when AI takes over content platforms, how can crypto staking recover a sense of trust?).

Table of contents

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• 99% is hype
• Copyright is dead: giant plagiarism machines already stole everything
• Casino business model: the house somehow forgot it’s supposed to win
• Should we be writing blogs more than ever now?
• Leave Big Tech behind and embrace the open web

“I quit. The clankers won.”—— I surrender. The robots win. (The term “clankers” is used to mock people who embrace AI or robotic technology.)

This is the blog post title published yesterday (1) by David Bushell, a veteran UK front-end engineer. But this isn’t a resignation letter—it’s a declaration of war. His target is the entire AI industry.

99% is hype

In the piece, Bushell makes no attempt to hide his anger. He points out that the current generative AI industry is nothing more than “a multibillion-dollar industrial complex, whose only purpose is to slap a price tag on creation.”

His fire is first aimed at OpenAI’s video generation tool, Sora. The “text-to-video” magic tool that Silicon Valley once put on a pedestal has already announced it’s shutting down. Bushell’s assessment is nothing short of savage:

“In all of human creative history, is there anything more worthless than the fart Sora produces? Even NFTs have more value.”

These words come from someone who is clearly not an AI-coin fan, and for crypto readers, the irony is especially strong. After all, if even an independent developer thinks NFTs are better than Sora, you can probably imagine how much contempt he has for generative AI.

He goes even further, drawing a conclusion: “Generative AI is art. But it’s incurable garbage art—end of discussion.” In his view, even a child’s scribble drawn with crayons is more valuable than any image generated by AI, because it’s made by humans.

Copyright is dead: giant plagiarism machines already stole everything

Bushell’s criticism doesn’t stop at aesthetics—he goes straight for the fundamental ethical problem in the AI industry.

“Giant plagiarism machines have already stolen everything. Copyright is dead. Licensing agreements were washed away in a clean room.”

This accusation describes the controversy over current AI training data: large language models and image generation models are almost all trained by consuming publicly available content on the internet, while creators receive little to no compensation. The so-called “clean room” is a legal technical approach that tech companies use to avoid copyright lawsuits—Bushell tears right through this disguise.

Casino business model: the house somehow forgot it’s supposed to win

In addition to mocking the quality of AI, Bushell’s analysis of the entire AI business model is just as sharp.

“The AI industry is built on a predatory casino business model. The only difference is that they forgot the house is supposed to be the one that wins.”

This line hits the core pain point of the AI bubble: even at the very top, the rate at which AI companies burn cash still far exceeds revenue growth. OpenAI has a $11.5 billion quarterly loss, big tech’s AI capital expenditures keep swelling, yet they still can’t find a killer, marketable application.

Should we be writing blogs more than ever now?

But the real core of Bushell’s article isn’t criticism—it’s a call to action.

He observes that more and more developers and creators are losing confidence: “Programming is over,” “Blogs are dead”—these gloomy voices are popping up one after another. But his conclusion is the opposite: precisely because everyone is outsourcing their thinking to “cloud con artists,” your original ideas become incredibly valuable.

Writing a blog isn’t just about sharing knowledge. Bushell believes the writing process forces you to question your assumptions—when you turn vague ideas into words, those logical gaps have nowhere to hide.

“Everyone is trying to steal your voice—don’t give up on yourself.”

He emphasizes that no matter how small your audience is, someone will find your blog post in some late-night moment, and that post will help them. In an era when AI-generated garbage content floods search results, what’s truly written with care by human beings is like an oasis in the desert.

Leave Big Tech behind and embrace the open web

Bushell’s conclusion is: “The only way to win is not to play this game.”

He urges developers to leave large tech platforms and return to the “old internet,” the “open web,” and the “independent web.” Big Tech isn’t the internet itself—they’re just giant beasts parasitizing on the internet.

He even directly calls the AI industry’s drivers “technical fascists.” Even though the wording is harsh, the underlying concern is real: when a small number of companies monopolize the ability to produce and distribute content, individual creative freedom and the openness of the web will disappear.

As AI anxiety becomes increasingly obvious. Maybe the real solution isn’t in the next bigger model, but as he says: when everyone outsources their thinking to machines, your original thinking is the scarcest resource.