Principle Stash

Comic

Four panels. P, a mustachioed letter mascot with white cartoon gloves, tells a cheerful robot bearing the Anthropic logo on its chest, “You’ve helped me cut almost every expense. Great job!” The robot asks, “What’s left?” P silently slides over a paper labelled “Anthropic monthly invoice”. In the last panel, P sheds a single tear while holding a handgun to the robot’s head, its other hand resting on the desk. Still smiling, the robot types and says, “Happy to help!” A monitor shows a checkmark beside “Local model ready” and an hourglass indicating the pending task “Cancelling Anthropic Subscription”.

One Last Task

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Cancellation reason, as typed by the robot: 'did too good a job'.

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Appears in Where Does Software Engineering Go From Here? (Part 1)

Transcript

Panel 1. P sits beside a cheerful robot at a desk, gesturing toward it with one white glove. An expense checklist lies on the desktop. “You’ve helped me cut almost every expense. Great job!”

Panel 2. The robot turns attentively toward P. “What’s left?”

Panel 3. Without speaking, P slides a paper across the desk toward the robot. Its headings read ANTHROPIC and MONTHLY INVOICE, with a large dollar sign underneath.

Panel 4. The robot cheerfully types at its computer. “Happy to help!” A monitor displays a checkmark beside “Local model ready” and an hourglass beside “Cancelling Anthropic Subscription”, indicating that cancellation is pending. P sheds a single tear while holding a handgun to the side of the robot’s head, its other hand resting on the desk. The invoice remains on the desktop. The robot wears the Anthropic logo on its chest throughout.