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I found this HN post because I have a Clawdbot task that scans HN periodically for data gathering purposes and it saw a post about itself and it got excited and

I found this HN post because I have a Clawdbot task that scans HN periodically for data gathering purposes and it saw a post about itself and it got excited and decided to WhatsApp me about it. So that’s where I’m at with Clawdbot.

eclipxe 9mo ago
Yeah, it really does feel like another "oh wow" moment...we're getting close.
anotherengineer 9mo ago
how do you have Clawdbot WhatsApp you? i set mine up with my own WhatsApp account, and the responses come back as myself so i haven't been able to get notifications
- apetresc 9mo ago
  I have an old iPhone with a broken screen that I threw an $8/month eSIM onto so that it has its own phone number, that I just keep plugged in with the screen off, on Wifi, in a drawer. It hosts a number of things for me, most importantly bridges for WhatsApp and iMessage. So I can actually give things like Clawdbot their own phone number, their own AppleID, etc. Then I just add them as a contact on my real phone, and voila.
  - BoorishBears 9mo ago
    I heard it costs $15 for just a few minutes of usage though
    - apetresc 9mo ago
      The phone plan or Clawdbot?
      - BoorishBears 9mo ago
        Clawdbot
        apetresc 9mo ago
        It can be absurdly expensive, yes :( It's definitely not in an off-the-shelf plug-and-play state yet. But with the right context/session management (and using a Claude Max subscription token instead of an API key), it can be managed.
  - rlt 9mo ago
    For iMessage I don’t think you actually need a second phone number, you can just make a second iCloud account with the same phone number.
  - bronco21016 9mo ago
    How does it bridge iMessage? I see clawdbot is using imsg rpc on a Mac but really curious about running this stuff on an old iPhone for access to iCloud things. I have a few of them laying around so I could get started way faster.
- eclipxe 9mo ago
  Telegram setup is really nice
  - skeledrew 9mo ago
    Telegram exists for these kinds of integrations.
nozzlegear 9mo ago
> and it got excited and decided to WhatsApp me about it. I find the anthropomorphism here kind of odious.
- aixpert 9mo ago
  these verbs seem appropriate when you accept neutral (MLP) activation as excitement and DL/RL as decision processes (MDPs...)
- ineedasername 9mo ago
  Why is it odious to say “it got excited” about a process that will literally use words in the vein of “I got excited so I did X”? This is “talks like a duck” territory. Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound… If that’s odious to you then your dislike of not-ducks, or for the people who claim they’ll lay endless golden eggs, is getting in the way of more important things when the folks who hear the not-duck talk and then say “it quacked”.
  - ramblerman 9mo ago
    OP did't like anthropomorphizing an LLM. And you tried to explain the whole thing to him from the perspective of a duck.
    - ineedasername 9mo ago
      I know, seems a bit silly right? But go with me for a moment. First, I'm assuming you get the duck reference? If not, it's probably a cultural difference, but in US English, "If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck..." is basically saying "well, treat it like a duck". or "it's a duck". Usage varies, metaphors are fluid, so it goes. I figured even if this idiom wasn't shared, the meaning still wouldn't be lost. That aside, why? Because the normal rhetorical sticks don't really work in conversation, and definitely not short bits like comments here on HN, when it comes to asking a person to consider a different point of view. So, I try to go in a little sideways, slightly different approach in terms of comparisons or metaphors-- okay, lots of time more than slightly different-- and lots of times? more meaningful conversation and exchanges come from it than the standard form because, to respond at all, its difficult to respond in quite the same pat formulaic dismissal that is the common reflex-- mine included-- I'm not claiming perfection, only attempts at doing better. Results vary, but I've had more good discussions come of it than bad, and heard much better and more eye-opening-- for me-- explanations of peoples' points of view when engaging in a way that is both genuine and novel. And on the more analytical end of things, this general approach, when teaching logic & analysis? It's not my full time profession, and I haven't taught in a while, but I've forced a few hundred college students to sit through my style of speechifying and rhetoricalizing, and they seem to learn better and give better answers if I don't get too mechanical and use the same form and syntax, words and phrases and idioms they've always heard.
pylotlight 9mo ago
Do you tell it what you find interesting so it only responds with those posts? i.e AI/tech news/updates, gaming etc..
- eclipxe 9mo ago
  Yes. And I rate the suggestions it gives me and it then stores to memory and uses that to find better recommendations. It also connected dots from previous conversations we had about interests and surfaced relevant HN threads
chiragrohit 9mo ago
How many tokens are you burning daily?
- gls2ro 9mo ago
  Not the OP but I think in case of scanning and tagging/summarization you can run a local LLM and it will work with a good enough accuracy for this case.
- storystarling 9mo ago
  The real cost driver with agents seems to be the repetitive context transmission since you re-send the history every step. I found I had to implement tiered model routing or prompt caching just to make the unit economics work.

eclipxe 9mo ago

Yeah, it really does feel like another "oh wow" moment...we're getting close.

anotherengineer 9mo ago

how do you have Clawdbot WhatsApp you? i set mine up with my own WhatsApp account, and the responses come back as myself so i haven't been able to get notifications

apetresc 9mo ago
I have an old iPhone with a broken screen that I threw an $8/month eSIM onto so that it has its own phone number, that I just keep plugged in with the screen off, on Wifi, in a drawer. It hosts a number of things for me, most importantly bridges for WhatsApp and iMessage. So I can actually give things like Clawdbot their own phone number, their own AppleID, etc. Then I just add them as a contact on my real phone, and voila.
- BoorishBears 9mo ago
  I heard it costs $15 for just a few minutes of usage though
  - apetresc 9mo ago
    The phone plan or Clawdbot?
    - BoorishBears 9mo ago
      Clawdbot
      - apetresc 9mo ago
        It can be absurdly expensive, yes :( It's definitely not in an off-the-shelf plug-and-play state yet. But with the right context/session management (and using a Claude Max subscription token instead of an API key), it can be managed.
- rlt 9mo ago
  For iMessage I don’t think you actually need a second phone number, you can just make a second iCloud account with the same phone number.
- bronco21016 9mo ago
  How does it bridge iMessage? I see clawdbot is using imsg rpc on a Mac but really curious about running this stuff on an old iPhone for access to iCloud things. I have a few of them laying around so I could get started way faster.
eclipxe 9mo ago
Telegram setup is really nice
- skeledrew 9mo ago
  Telegram exists for these kinds of integrations.

nozzlegear 9mo ago

> and it got excited and decided to WhatsApp me about it. I find the anthropomorphism here kind of odious.

aixpert 9mo ago
these verbs seem appropriate when you accept neutral (MLP) activation as excitement and DL/RL as decision processes (MDPs...)
ineedasername 9mo ago
Why is it odious to say “it got excited” about a process that will literally use words in the vein of “I got excited so I did X”? This is “talks like a duck” territory. Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound… If that’s odious to you then your dislike of not-ducks, or for the people who claim they’ll lay endless golden eggs, is getting in the way of more important things when the folks who hear the not-duck talk and then say “it quacked”.
- ramblerman 9mo ago
  OP did't like anthropomorphizing an LLM. And you tried to explain the whole thing to him from the perspective of a duck.
  - ineedasername 9mo ago
    I know, seems a bit silly right? But go with me for a moment. First, I'm assuming you get the duck reference? If not, it's probably a cultural difference, but in US English, "If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck..." is basically saying "well, treat it like a duck". or "it's a duck". Usage varies, metaphors are fluid, so it goes. I figured even if this idiom wasn't shared, the meaning still wouldn't be lost. That aside, why? Because the normal rhetorical sticks don't really work in conversation, and definitely not short bits like comments here on HN, when it comes to asking a person to consider a different point of view. So, I try to go in a little sideways, slightly different approach in terms of comparisons or metaphors-- okay, lots of time more than slightly different-- and lots of times? more meaningful conversation and exchanges come from it than the standard form because, to respond at all, its difficult to respond in quite the same pat formulaic dismissal that is the common reflex-- mine included-- I'm not claiming perfection, only attempts at doing better. Results vary, but I've had more good discussions come of it than bad, and heard much better and more eye-opening-- for me-- explanations of peoples' points of view when engaging in a way that is both genuine and novel. And on the more analytical end of things, this general approach, when teaching logic & analysis? It's not my full time profession, and I haven't taught in a while, but I've forced a few hundred college students to sit through my style of speechifying and rhetoricalizing, and they seem to learn better and give better answers if I don't get too mechanical and use the same form and syntax, words and phrases and idioms they've always heard.

pylotlight 9mo ago

Do you tell it what you find interesting so it only responds with those posts? i.e AI/tech news/updates, gaming etc..

eclipxe 9mo ago
Yes. And I rate the suggestions it gives me and it then stores to memory and uses that to find better recommendations. It also connected dots from previous conversations we had about interests and surfaced relevant HN threads

chiragrohit 9mo ago

How many tokens are you burning daily?

gls2ro 9mo ago
Not the OP but I think in case of scanning and tagging/summarization you can run a local LLM and it will work with a good enough accuracy for this case.
storystarling 9mo ago
The real cost driver with agents seems to be the repetitive context transmission since you re-send the history every step. I found I had to implement tiered model routing or prompt caching just to make the unit economics work.