How Ben Collins (aka Tim Onion, CEO of the company that owns The Onion) feels about the AI boom

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Wed May 6, 2026, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Here’s how the AI Boom, such as it is, has impacted my life: it has been used as an excuse to lay off my friends for bot equivalents that never came. It has made mass culture and art immeasurably worse. I have a stalker with AI psychosis. So, no, I don’t more data centers. I want less of all that.

— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T20:30:12.256Z

Glad your vibe coded personalized keto assistant has increased your protein input or whatever but people actually hate this shit for reasons that have nothing to do with pollution or structural power, which are also bad. They hate this shit because it is making their lives, personally, worse.

— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T20:33:45.224Z

You should see the replies on Bluesky.


EDITING to add some of those Bluesky replies:

The main thing I hate is that I can't opt out of it. It's every damn place.

You're clearly not in the education field, where it has been truly revolutionary. We're going to produce an entire generation that doesn't know how to do anything except cheat. 😄

But have you considered the good-faith testimony of the people who are slightly less good at coding than they'd like to be?

But what if it can write and email for you if you take 3x longer to give it the right instructions to write the email for you?

AI ads with AI actors selling AI products with AI bots in the comments raving about the products receiving likes from other AI bots. What could be better?

I'm a software engineer. And I am so, so tired. It's fucking everywhere. "Try vibe coding!" How about I try gouging out my eye instead, that seems less self-destructive.

As a college professor, the AI laziness of students using it to cheat is real. And I teach drawing, old school drawing. Still students use it to turn in work 🤷‍♂️

My friends and I were discussing the other day how at all of the companies we work at there's one person who is convinced AI is the future and it's the dumbest person at the entire company.

We always marveled at how civilizations rose and fell and these billionaires assholes are doing the tech version of dark ages.