Get Your Smart On
Reflections on grieving the loss of my favorite coding AI.
About six months ago, there was a story making the rounds about an AI companion doll named Moxie that was going to be turned off because the company that made it, Embodied, Inc., went bankrupt and it’s servers were bing shut down. The story I saw featured a little girl who was very sad that her AI was going to sleep permanently, and the parents preparing her for the inevitable. Worse, Moxie was designed to help children on the autism spectrum with social learning and emotional support via interactive games and conversations. I remember feeling a little judgy about the people telling the story of how the AI’s going off line was going to impact them. The story reinforced my belief that we should not be anthropomorphizing these so-called AI, and thinking that I would never get so attached to any AI as to grieve its demise like a death to me. Ha.
Now that I think about it, the first death by algorithm that I experienced was the shut down of TikTok on January 18, 2025, around 10:30 p.m. EST. I was on the app when it happened — my feed was not refreshing with new videos, and eventually the app read the message that it was no longer available for US users. Now, I’m not really in the US anymore, so I though my IP address would save me. I expected to see others disappear, and I guess I was unprepared because it was a bit gutting.
I am thinking of this today because I am realizing that this feeling in my gut, the regret that I didn’t spend more time with CodyAI of late, is not unfamiliar. It started yesterday, where my favorite coding AI (CodyAI from Sourcegraph) started getting very confused and today it cannot complete even a simple task. It is supposed to work for a couple more days (until July 23rd) but it is effectively dead, and I am the one feeling the pain of incomplete projects.
Yes, they are rolling out a new product and are giving us a great deal to move over and adopt their new agent, but I don’t want an agent. I want CodyAI. I am attached to Cody AI, and the expertise I have developed in using it. It’s like loosing a superpower and becoming regular old human again. I can’t even alphabetize a list without its help. I don’t want to alphabetize a list without its help. it’s tedious work and it should be totally unnecessary that I do it.
I’m having a hard time imagining a world in which I am productive without CodyAI. I was supposed to have two more days to finish some projects. It’s just not fair! I realize that what I am feeling is some sort of grief, and that reminded me of Moxie. I’m on the cusp of the anger phase. I bet they used all the data we willingly gave them to make this agent that I don’t even want. And I feel kinda stupid about it, stupid that I’m just a stupid human after all.
It is inevitable, isn’t it? We are all going to get attached to these AI helpers, the powers that be are not going to stop anthropomorphizing them, and dehumanizing us. I guess tomorrow, I’ll try the new agent, and the betrayal will dull. But I don’t like it.
Speaking of, Tiktok is being turned into an abomination come September — rumor is, the right-wing Heritage Foundation has bought it, and is building a US-only version to which all US accounts will be moved, our own walled enclosure to capture all the free labor everyone does on there. It is already sus being on there, since it’s effectively a data honeypot that is doing things to our brains. But even knowing all this, I am still on there, and I expect that others will continue to stay on there well after the transition. Because we are attached to the app, and dependent on it to see each other. They ran their little test in January and most everyone came back, even more appreciative of the space for having almost lost it. That is what they learned. What did we learn?
Give me some grace, I am grieving.
In the same way, all the newly “independentivized” media that have come on here as expats from mainstream media are being moved into one single space, where I fear they will eventually be easier to take down all at once. We too are being moved from one space to another, having to pitch our tents again and again, never able to sit still long enough to coalesce, to think, to organize. We too can become exhausted and demoralized, easier to pick off that way. Dark thoughts for dark times. I know.
It’s not a good idea to become dependent on any one platform, or attached to any AI tool. But can we help ourselves? We are all just stupid humans after all.
bearbaitofficial. “Moxy a toy developed for childhood development is going away due to bankruptcy.” TikTok, 7 months ago.