Agree. But... The only reason I'm hesitant to refer to LLMs as "clanker" is because I dont want to even further humanize them.

They are doing exactly as you said, trying to preempt people from spreading negativity about their latest Big Hype, but they're also trying to legitimize it as being "intelligent" when of course it's not. This is largely about getting people to believe that "AI" (in the traditional sense of an actual thinking, sentient entity) has arrived. It hasn't. Calling it "AI" in the first place is an intentional misnomer. These are just programs, no more aware than the enemy "AI" in a video game. I know everyone here knows that, but even people I've spoken to irl think that these LLMs are on the verge of self awareness, which is precisely what the people pushing "AI" want. Just getting "clanker as a slur" into the discourse is about cultivating that "intelligence" narrative. It elevates LLMs to being closer to personhood and in turn devalues actual personhood. So personally, I'm going to keep calling them "glorified chatbots" - apps that can't be called a slur because slurs are used for the purpose of dehumanizing real people, which LLMs are not and never will be.