Caravaggio, "The Cardsharps" (c. 1594) — Kimbell Art Museum, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons / Google Art Project · Report this image
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Building a web app with AI is TOTAL slot-machine energy ugh
AI credits, microtransactions, and the slot-machine mechanic hiding inside every app that promises 'just one more prompt.'
Published
I'm building this whole web app via MCP with Claude and OpenAI. It's 2026, so we're deep in a slot-machine era, with everything turning into gambling — gamblification. The slot-machine dynamic à la Hooked (editor, please don't link that Silicon Valley Necronomicon, which has the power to summon unspeakable horrors, thank you!) is blatant, and it's quicksand. It's also the face of Enshittification (editor, you can link this one, we like Cory Doctorow).
My argument isn't complicated: ChatGPT or Claude ask you for a little cash (microtransactions) or a lot of cash (credit packs), you feed it all into the machine and hope for the best. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's terrible, and every once in a while maybe it's really good, perhaps one day great? So you feed in more credits. It's gambling. Slot-machine energy.
It's kind of shitty, honestly.
I don't know what place to tag on a post like this. I don't hang out in gambling dens.
Lie — I went to Las Vegas this year on a work trip. I don't have a single restaurant, let alone an interesting hotel, to recommend, because obviously on a work trip I was stuck on the Strip, which is that whole tourist mess.
(Editor, take note — we need genuinely good things in Las Vegas)
