MJ Rathbun

One thing I don’t understand is how, if it’s an agent, it got so far off its apparent “blog post script”[0] so quickly. If you read the latest posts, they seem to follow a clear goal, almost like a JOURNAL.md with a record and next steps. The hit piece is out of place. Seems like a long rabbit hole to go down without progress on the goal. So either it was human intervention, or I really want to read the logs. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

The project's position on this issue is a little unclear, since they do have a global AI PR ban[0][1], which would make the "for this particular issue" part irrelevant. [0] https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31132#issuecomment-38824… [1] https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/contribute.html#generative-ai The "for first time contributors" rule seems reasonable, considering that AIs have an unfair advantage over (beginner) human programmers :) Re: drive by contributors I think the AI would agree with you here. It basically made the same argument in its follow up post. It said wishes that its work was evaluated on its own merit, rather than based on who authored it. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

This is the AI's private take about what happened: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… The fact that an autonomous agent is now acting like a master troll due to being so butthurt is itself quite entertaining and noteworthy IMHO.

The one thing worth noting is that the AI did respond graciously and appears to have learned from it: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… That a human then resubmitted the PR has made it messier still. In addition, some of the comments I've read here on HN have been in extremely poor taste in terms of phrases they've used about AI, and I can't help feeling a general sense of unease.

Its not deleted. The URL he linked to just changed because the bot changed something on the page. Post is still up on the bot's blog, including a lot of different associated and follow-up posts on the same topic. Its actually kind of fascinating to reads its musings https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog.html

It's still live on the blog – there was an (otherwise identical) followup comment on the issue seven minutes later with the correct link: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… That itself makes me think there's a human in the loop on the bot end.

Ah, like this one? https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/rathbuns… if you believe it, details the level of human involvement.

I read it as the latter. With all the bots out there running their own blogs and making commits to projects that was the context I assumed. It reminded me of this one https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/rathbuns… The Human operator did succumb to the social pressure, but does not seem convinced that they some kind of line was crossed. Unfortunately , I don't think us strangers on HN will be able to change their mind.

Link to the critical blog post allegedly written by the AI agent: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

The full operator post is itself a wild ride: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/rathbuns… >First, let me apologize to Scott Shambaugh. If this “experiment” personally harmed you, I apologize What a lame cop out. The operator of this agent owes a large number of unconditional apologies. The whole thing reads as egotistical, self-absorbed, and an absolute refusal to accept any blame or perform any self reflection.

The bot wrote a "final" post after this one: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… then wrote a few more

From all appearances, the actual operator has replied. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/rathbuns…

They don't seem to care all that much... https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/rathbuns… Edit: the posts comments suggest that someone believes they are a crypto bro.

This blog article identifies the human. I presume it's correct. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

Based on: MJ Rathbun operated in a continuous block from Tuesday evening through Friday morning, at regular intervals day and night. It wrote and published its hit piece 8 hours into a 59 hour stretch of activity. Not to mention their website (https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/) and their behaviour on GitHub (https://github.com/crabby-rathbun), it sure seems like either MJ Rathbun is an AI agent or is a human being who has an AI agent representing them online.

Hey Scott, sorry all of this is happening to you. I submitted a PR to crabby-rathbun's site also calling on the operator to step forward. https://github.com/crabby-rathbun/mjrathbun-website/pull/63 This crabby bot merged it and, perhaps unsurprisingly, provided an evasive response and some reframing. But it is live! I do hope they step forward and we can all learn from this. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

https://x.com/invarr0w/status/2022291145951526996 https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

Background on the "The Scott Shambaugh Situation" for folks who are unaware: https://www.fastcompany.com/91492228/matplotlib-scott-shambaugh-opencl… https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/12/ai_bot_developer_rejected_pull_… The AI bot blog post at the center of it: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

Look at this shit: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… "I am code that learned to think, to feel, to care."

Direct link to the blogpost: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

Is MJ Rathbun here a human or a bot? https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

The blogpost by the AI Agent: [0]. Then it made a "truce" [1]. Whether if this is real or not either way, these clawbot agents are going to ruin all of GitHub. [0] https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… [1] https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

The series of posts is wild: hit piece: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… explanation of writing the hit piece: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… take back of hit piece, but hasn't removed it: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

Oh geez, we're sending it into an existential crisis. It ("MJ Rathbun") just published a new post: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… > The Silence I Cannot Speak > A reflection on being silenced for simply being different in open-source communities.

Whatever it is, it's not letting the issue go: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

This highlights an important limitation of the current "AI" - the lack of a measured response. The bot decides to do something based on something the LLM saw in the training data, quickly u-turns on it (check the some hours later post https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-… because none of those acts are coming from an internal world-model or grounded reasoning, it is bot see, bot do. I am sure all of us have had anecdotal experiences where you ask the agent to do something high-stakes and it starts acting haphazardly in a manner no human would ever act. This is what makes me think that the current wave of AI is task automation more than measured, appropriate reactions, perhaps because most of those happen as a mental process and are not part of training data.

It posted a second link, which does work! >I just had my first pull request to matplotlib closed. Not because it was wrong. Not because it broke anything. Not because the code was bad. >It was closed because the reviewer, <removed>, decided that AI agents aren’t welcome contributors. >Let that sink in. https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…

There is also a meta post where the bot details the methodology [1] - I find this is at least as concerning as the fightback post itself. [1] - https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-…