The AI Booster Tier List
May 4, 2026·
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2 min read
muckrAIkers
This week, Jacob and Igor swap the usual news breakdown for a complete taxonomy of AI boosters within the framing of a tier list. They run through every type, from the good-faith genuine enthusiast to the denial-prone deflector, the financially captured, corporate power-players, platform builders, and finally the model-building true believers. They also get into “crit-hype,” the idea that some critics are inadvertently boosting the systems they’re fighting against. No muck to separate this week, just the guys working through their framework and explaining why their opinions are S tier.
EPISODE RECORDED 2026.04.07; TRANSCRIPT
Chapters
00:00 ❙ Introduction
02:45 ❙ The Booster Tier List
07:48 ❙ A-Tier: The Genuine Enthusiast
11:36 ❙ B-Tier: The Denial-Prone Booster
14:34 ❙ C-Tier: The Financially Adjacent Booster
19:03 ❙ D-Tier: The Corporate Booster
23:31 ❙ E-Tier: The Product and Platform Booster
26:36 ❙ F-Tier: The Model Builders
31:08 ❙ Bonus Tier: Crit Hype
39:28 ❙ So What Do We Actually Do With This?
46:04 ❙ Outro (Igor's Challenge)
02:45 ❙ The Booster Tier List
07:48 ❙ A-Tier: The Genuine Enthusiast
11:36 ❙ B-Tier: The Denial-Prone Booster
14:34 ❙ C-Tier: The Financially Adjacent Booster
19:03 ❙ D-Tier: The Corporate Booster
23:31 ❙ E-Tier: The Product and Platform Booster
26:36 ❙ F-Tier: The Model Builders
31:08 ❙ Bonus Tier: Crit Hype
39:28 ❙ So What Do We Actually Do With This?
46:04 ❙ Outro (Igor's Challenge)
Links
- Ed Zitron Substack article - How to Argue with an AI Booster
- MIT Technology Review article - How Social Media Encourages the Worst of AI Boosterism
- The Telegraph article - AI isn’t magic. We’re just being taken for mugs
- New Scientist article - The dangers of so-called AI experts believing their own hype
- Mark Carrigan blogpost - The ugly pathologisation of ‘AI boosters’
- Understanding AI Substack article - AI skeptics and AI boosters are both wrong
News
- Bloommberg article - OpenAI is Falling out of Favor with Secondary Buyers
- The New Yorker article - Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
- The Economic Times article - OpenAI CFO concerned over Sam Altman’s 2026 IPO plans: The Information
- Cory Doctorow article - Pluralistic: It’s extremely good that Claude’s source-code leaked (02 Apr 2026)
