this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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Fuck AI
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A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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Taking into account that such a circuit would only need one resistor and one LED (apart from the connector), this shows that AI is still of no real use.
Exactly. People act like LLMs are sentient or intelligent. It's just a "next word" predictor, no cognition or understanding if reality.
Journeyman of electronics here. That is not true.
Yes, you can in theory just use an LED, two resistors and build a voltage devider. You could as well just use a screw driver and look how deep you can get in an USB C port. In theory nothing should go bad, in practice, that is not how the USB C standard wants it.
Using something like an LM317 is the correct way.
It's a USB-C connector, so it would need slightly more that a single resistor to trigger power delivery. If I recall correctly, you can get away with two resistors formong a voltage divider on a specific pin to trigger a basic 5v supply though, so it'd be three resistors.
One 5.1k pull-down resistor on each of the two CC pins.
OK, conceded. Still quite different from the LLMs attempt.
Oh the LLM's attempt is nonsense on all sorts of levels. The board is too big, conponents only have one terminal connected, the socket is on backwards, there's random holes in the board, and I initially wondered if it was trying to use a power delivery IC, which would be massive overkill, but it looks more like a transistor, and it appears to have connected all if the terminals together. Oh, and unless d1 is a tiny LED, it hasn't actually included the very LED it's supposed to light.
Gaving the LLM desugn the board as an experiment is fine (result: fail), but sending it to be manufactured without even checking it was astonishingly wasteful. It's just more e-waste. The more I think about it, the more cross I get.
That’s the first physical manifestation AI slop I’ve ever seen. I hope OP frames it and hangs it on the wall. It’s a historic moment and having that remind you every day will be worth it.
If you don’t proofread the text, check the diagram and think about the code, you’re taking a huge risk, and this is the result. If you outsource your thinking to a feeble AI like that, you deserve a humiliating price like this.
Heck, technically the resistor isn't even needed with an led that can handle the power from a USB brick
Note to others: Don't do this unless you've verified that your particular LED already has the resistor built into it, which is how those work.
Otherwise, hooking a bare LED up to DC voltage tends to eventually convert it to a smoke emitting diode, especially since LEDs have an inverse temperature/resistance relationship. The hotter it gets the lower its resistance becomes so the more current it draws so the hotter it gets so the lower its resistance becomes so the more current it... pop.
At least for a little while!
/s