Essays — Hunter Powers

LatestNo. 04September 202615 min read

The Constraint Was Never the Code

A former CTO on slot machines, obedient machines, and what is left to blame once the code stops being the problem.

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A small figure stands in a field of red, facing a towering black slot machine overflowing with coins.

A giant clock face in cadmium red scratched out of black, minute hand at twelve; a tower of small suited figures stands shoulder-on-shoulder to hold the hand in place.

No. 03September 202622 min read

Your AI Isn’t Broken. Nobody’s Managing It.

The machine picked an answer the room itself was defending, and the room called it broken. We built machines capable of judgment, bought them like equipment, and got indignant when judgment appeared.

Dozens of empty white office chairs scattered across a black field, a solid red wedge opening through their center, and two small seated figures watching from the bottom edge.

No. 02September 202626 min read

AI Is Going to Hire More People Than It Fires

I made the Monday morning layoff calls, and smuggled the first useful AI into the building for twenty dollars. Both are why I think this ends in a hiring boom.

A colossal uniformed doorman in a field of blue, seen from behind at rigid attention, while a small man walks past his boots without looking up.

No. 01August 202611 min read

My Prompt Is More Cyberpunk Now

I had real work to do, so naturally I rebuilt my shell instead: 390 lines of neglected zshrc, eight plaintext API keys, and an agent with edit access.