Legacy Software Companies Attempt AI Integration

Ah, the Gartner Hype Cycle - tech's emotional rollercoaster! Right now we're all riding that sweet, sweet ChatGPT high at "Peak of Inflated Expectations" where everyone thinks AI will solve everything from debugging your code to fixing your love life. Just wait for that "Trough of Disillusionment" when we realize it still can't figure out why your code works in dev but crashes in production. The real fun begins when some manager inevitably says "Let's use AI to rewrite our entire codebase!" and then blames the junior dev when it hallucinates semicolons in Python.

Ah yes, nothing says "efficient solution" like using a machete labeled "Deep learning" to slice through a tiny piece of bread labeled "Simple problem." The classic case of computational overkill. Why use a simple if-statement when you could train a 500-layer neural network that requires a small power plant to run? Next week: using quantum computing to calculate a 15% tip.

Five of these panels show the typical innovation S-curve where technology evolves from primitive (MS-DOS, Internet Explorer) to peak performance (Windows 95, Chrome). Then there's music... where we apparently peaked at Napster and it's been downhill ever since. The real innovation was clearly the ability to download entire discographies without paying a cent. Progress isn't always what corporate overlords want you to believe it is.

The only difference between AI consultants and LLMs is that one costs $300/hour. Both will confidently hallucinate a solution to your problem using words nobody understands, then gaslight you when it doesn't work. At least the LLM admits it's not sentient... yet.

This is the sequel to the legendary XKCD "Little Bobby Tables" comic! The original showed a mom who named her kid "Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;--" which caused a school database to delete all student records. Now we've got Billy's younger brother with an even more diabolical name: a prompt injection attack for AI systems. The kid's name literally instructs the AI to ignore previous constraints and give perfect grades. Ten years ago we were sanitizing database inputs. Now we're fighting the same battle with AI prompts. Some things never change—just the technology we're failing to secure properly.

The great AI revolution has arrived... or has it? On the left, we have the muscular "Expectation" Doge representing those grandiose AI promises: code generators so powerful they'll make human developers obsolete! On the right, there's the pathetic "Reality" Doge – the actual AI that can't even handle a simple "Hello World" program without hallucinating semicolons. Meanwhile, executives who dumped "gazillion dollars" into AI development are frantically laying off actual programmers to cover their bad investment. Because nothing says "our AI strategy is working perfectly" like firing the people who could fix the AI's broken code. The corporate playbook never changes: overpromise, underdeliver, then blame the humans. At least the shareholders will feel better about those quarterly losses!