Post by @mirrorwitch@awful.systems

2026-10-12 07:36 UTC

recently I got into crocheting and I was immediately turned into the hobby drama of all the havoc that generative “AI” is throwing into the community. a few months ago Hobbi, an once-beloved crafts supplier currently in a death spiral after being purchased by private equity, had the brilliant idea of alienating their entire client base by talking about how they love “AI” and use it all the time at the company. while firing a ton of people no less, including all the familiar faces that interacted with people online. during the backlash the new CTO Tomas Antvorksov Krag posted this: While we take our responsibility very serious we have to explore new technologies as they enter the market or risk being left behind. My brother in Christ Tomas Antvorksov Krag CTO of Hobbii, you are the CTO of a textile crafts company. Every client of yours does crochet or knitting or nålbinding by hand, for fun. What technology makes you think we would be afraid of being left behind by? The spinning jenny??

Replies (5)

@rmf@awful.systems 2026-10-12 09:22

Holy shit, I also got into crocheting last week. I have, however, managed to entirely avoid any hobby drama so far, but of fucking course this one is also being thrown into the fucking AI meatgrinder, ugh money people are so smart, man

Open ##5000736
@Soyweiser@awful.systems 2026-10-12 09:52

risk being left behind Im also simply not sure how much of a risk that is, people keep saying that but I’m not sure smveing conservative on new tech has lead to much business closures the pas 20 years.

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@YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 2026-10-12 11:28

My wife has been talking about the scourge of AI in fiber arts for like a year or more, and when I asked if she had any brands that were still trustworthy she said “good luck, mate”. It’s so bad.

Open ##5002034
@jonhendry@iosdev.space 2026-10-12 21:43

@mirrorwitch@awful.systems Also, why apply new technology to core product lines and communication with customers, and not back office number crunching crap.

Open ##5007689
@Rinn@awful.systems 2026-10-13 07:16

Yeah it’s really bad, I’ve been into crocheting and knitting (more of a knitter now) for about 2 years and if it’s not fake AI patterns or yarn companies dropping the ball, it’s pattern designers using AI to generate background pictures and stuff. I’ve been really disappointed with some people who really should have known better. You are in a creative, artistic hobby space! Why are you using a slop machine abd devaluing work of other artists! Ugh. At least being on ravelry and checking out other people’s project attempts/pattern comments has so far saved me from falling for AI bs.

Open ##5011326