I just had a run in with Anthropic's AI when trying to get help on a billing issue.

I ordered $100 of tokens for $90 (a 10% off deal). At first, the transactions would not go through. Then, they did. I saw the $90 come out of my account. But, no tokens showed up in the console

After several days, realizing my available tokens were dwindling, I reluctantly ordered $100 more. Those showed up.

Then, I started a week-long battle with their AI to get my $90 back or have the tokens show up.

Always got the same story how it was being referred to a human.

Eventually, I got an email. Said my tokens were there. I wrote back and said the console says otherwise.
I am not convinced I ever had a conversation with a human named "Blue".

Several more attempts followed. I threatened to dispute the transaction. I was offered a refund. $100 shows up in my bank account. At first, my tokens were still showing. Then, poof! The recently purchased tokens were gone.

Two weeks later, I have given up and just eating the loss of $90.
Too dang tired to keep pursuing it.

Are all AI run businesses cheats like this?

Alas, he got caught and drew attention to himself and his grifter boss.

Who remembers how people went apeshit when Apple downloaded the U2 album onto their iPod with asking?

How will people react this time?

The article seems to read that more independent shops are selling online. You only need an inventory and a couple of people (or robots) to fill e-commerce orders.

I'd rather see it be a 70% increase in real brick and mortar stores with corresponding staff. I miss the days of Borders Bookstores and the local bookstore like we had in my old hometown. Barnes and Noble doesn't even come close to Borders back in the day.

The tech you use today evolved from earlier tech and ideas.

We had computers that ran at 1.2 MHz. Today's run millions of times faster.
We had storage (floppy, tape, ZIP, HDD, CD/DVD, EEPROM) before today's SSD was born.
And, as someone else noted, we were at the birth of the internet. Before that, we had acoustic couplers and then direct connect modems to communicate with file servers.

Many of us even remember when AOL came on a floppy disk before the CD coasters started arriving in the mailbox twice a week.

So, enjoy modern technology. Your grandkids will be saying the same things you are about today's tech.

Delphi has undergone growth - not sure where you got off the train. But, despite supporting Linux, Mac, iOS and Android dev, it remains a Windows focused language and tool. And, unless one is using the community edition, it is expensive. Cost is its major downside. And, of course, the fact that it's object oriented (now, taboo), it probably won't climb the charts.

FreePascal is mostly a Delphi compatible version of Object Pascal but supports something like 32 different platforms.

I run Windows 11 for ARM in a Parallels VM on my M4 Max MBP.
Frankly, it runs well for 95+% of the apps I and most people use daily.
But, the apps that don't are a big issue. And, they are from the very company that offers Windows 11 for Arm. Yeah...that company...Microsoft.

In particular, it's the Microsoft SQL Server suite of tools. Most notably, Microsoft SQL Management Studio as I ended up running SQL Server in a Linux Docker container. But, managing it without MSMS has been difficult. I ended up using BeeKeeper and a tool from DevArt. Still, they don't offer backup and restore functionality so I had to write my own.

Now, I expect Microsoft to, eventually, get off their ass and provide an ARM compatible version. I suspect they waited this long to stick it to Mac Silicon users as long as possible. The Chromebooks aren't powerful enough to run SQL Server and that was their own ARM product. So, why bother, right?

But, with the right tools, Windows 11 for ARM runs really well. Snapdragon might be enough for Microsoft and other vendors too lazy to close the gap once non-Apple Silicon machines become available.

Except, you have to purchase Claude Pro or Enterprise. Before, you could use the website for free without having to use the app.
Now, if you want to use agencic coding with XCode, you might as well download the app as well since you always carry and refer to their phone.

Now, I admit, it was a bit early in the morning when I first responded. Of course XCode isn't the sole reason. People are also reacting to the petty bullshit of the Trump admin appreciate Anthropic's response to the threat. But, people will drop money for only so long on an AI tool for their phone.

What is the more probable reason other than as a coding tool for the Apple ecosystem and XCode?

Honestly, I subscribed to an Anthropic account so I could use it with XCode (which was announced the other day). It is set up to use ChatGPT and Claude with the slide of toggle. But, you need a paid account for both. The agencic features have been in the betas. And, there is a big Apple event this week. In the end, a perfect storm.

Agencic coding was announced with XCode 25.3.
Xcode now works with ChatGPT and Claude Code.
It requires the Pro version (vs free) of Claude.

If multiple people hit the Powerball jackpot, it is divided among the winners. They don't all get the jackpot amount so that would not bankrupt the system.

That being said, other prizes have specific cash denominations. And, others are multiplied by a PowerPlay multiplier by 1-5x (and, occasionally, 10x).

Still, it would take thousands if not millions of such winners to financially hurt the company.

And, I suspect there are rules that would trigger a fraud alert and render the drawing invalid.

And, when did he buy his 2011 Mac? 2023?

I've been a Mac user since 1984 (and use Windows machines for work).
Every Intel based laptop and desktop I've used over the years has, eventually, failed.

I still own a 2017 MBP. Aside from a dying battery,,.it still runs.
After I replace the battery, it will become a Linux machine simply because it has reached Apple's expiration date.

I've replaced it with a 2019 MacMini to run the Parallels VMs that won't run on M4 Max MBP.
I blame that issue on Microsoft not supporting ARM64 with MS SQL on Windows11 ARM64.
I have to run MSSQL in a Linux Docker container. It works. I use Beekeeper to manage SQL since MS SQL management studio doesn't run in Windows on ARM. All my other dev tools work fine. Thankfully, I have plenty of RAM (64GB) and SSD space so my machine doesn't skip a beat.

What about the guy he framed for the theft and took away his livelihood and reputation ...personally?

Did they make sure he would receive compensation?

As was noted, it might save 3-7 hours a week. This sounds like a big benefit. Except, a human then has to proof read and correct the output and, thus, offsetting the time saved.

An upside to this is that the human becomes more involved in the company business and, perhaps, a better employee if they learn something during the correction process.

For developers, AI can save a lot of time. The other night, I had it code an iOS app for an idea I've been working on. It entailed some detailed cryptographic and math work. It made mistakes. A lot of them (like calling out things to change when a bug was found only for the code to change wasn't in the code it generated.).

Still, in about three hours, I had something working....correctly. Of course, what I saw was the PVSS process was ungodly slow on ios running on modern hardware...mainly because the algorithms used by the PVSS protocol don't run in the Secure Enclave and are native Swift code.

So, if I can't speed it up, I will have to limit where I use PVSS vs VSS vs simple Shamir Secret Sharing going forward.

So, on to profiling.

Still, it saved me many hours search for and generating the code for a prototype which I could see and evaluate the issue first hand.

Liquid Glass is okay. But, developers are using it where they shouldn't. Making lists and other items glassy is wrongs. Reserve it for buttons and panels. And, be sure to check contrast.

I have encountered several apps that seem to screw up when editing text in Ios26. But, these apps are reported to being built in Flutter and Electron rather than SwiftUI. Those tools don't handle Liquid Glass and, instead, try to emulate it with varying degrees of success.

On my Mac, I disable the transparency and go with tinted entirely.

At least it, a fusion plant, won't melt down like the rest of his businesses