October 29, 2025
Duct tape, Duktape, drama
The Early Days of AI
Readers roast the 'AI is like early web' take—ad vibes, tape mix-ups, and age-gap eye rolls
TLDR: An essay says today’s AI tools mirror the messy early web, with quick fixes standing in for real standards. Commenters erupted: some called it ad-flavored slop, others argued it’s more XML-to-YAML chaos, and many mocked a 'Duktape' mix-up and a dubious 'under 25' claim—clear skepticism, little consensus.
The post claims we’re in the “jQuery age” of AI—aka the duct‑tape stage where quick fixes hold everything together—comparing today’s bots to the wild early web. It name‑checks old browser chaos and a hero tool that smoothed it over, then hints at looming shake‑ups and drops an edgy “MCP” tease. But the comments stole the show.
Top reply went nuclear: “slop? ad? both,” sneered one reader, accusing the post of selling more than explaining. Another waved off the jQuery analogy entirely: XML and YAML—fussy file formats people love to hate—are the real vibe, they argued: better later, still not good. A third rolled eyes at the drama—“MCP is war”? Relax. Then came the nerdfight: someone spotted the author calling duct tape “Duktape,” which is actually a JavaScript engine, and the thread face‑planted into pedant paradise.
The crowd also side‑eyed a throwaway claim that “most people reading this” are under 25—cue age‑gap memes and “OK boomer/dev” jokes. Nostalgia jokers revived “Best viewed in IE6” badges and begged to bring back the <blink> and <marquee> era. Verdict from the peanut gallery: the messy‑now, standard‑later story rings true, but the tone felt salesy and sloppy—and the tape pun practically became the main character.
Key Points
- •The article argues today’s AI agent development mirrors the fragmented, pre-standardization period of the mid-2000s web.
- •It recounts the browser wars, where inconsistent implementations across major browsers hindered developers despite W3C standards.
- •jQuery’s 2006 release abstracted cross-browser issues, enabling broad adoption and influencing later web APIs; by 2019 it ran on 80% of top sites.
- •The author cites current AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and integrations (Google Drive, Slack) as complex and inconsistent.
- •The piece suggests a future jQuery-like abstraction or emerging approaches (possibly MCP) could standardize or simplify AI agent development.