Posted by alex000kim 7 hours ago
I don’t get it. What does this mean? I can use Claude code now without anyone knowing it is Claude code.
it's written to _actively_ avoid any signs of AI generated code when "in a PUBLIC/OPEN-SOURCE repository".
Also, it's not about you. Undercover mode only activates for Anthropic employees (it's gated on USER_TYPE === 'ant', which is a build-time flag baked into internal builds).
I'm still inclined to think people might be overreacting to that bit since it seems to be for anthropic-only to prevent leaking internal info.
But I did read the prompt and it did say hide the fact that you are AI.
But, I also get Anthropic's side that when they're contributing they don't want their internals leaked. If it had been left at that, that's fine, but having it pretend like it's not AI at all rubs me a little bit the wrong way. Why try to hide it?
But none of the other agents advertise that the commit was done by an agent. Like Codex. Your panic should apply equally to already existing agents like Codex no?
Granted, there's a small counterargument for mythos which is that it's probably going to be API-only not subscription
You've got a business, and you sent me junk mail, but you made it look like some official government thing to get me to open it? I'm done, just because you lied on the envelope. I don't care how badly I need your service. There's a dozen other places that can provide it; I'll pick one of them rather than you, because you've shown yourself to be dishonest right out of the gate.
Same thing with an AI (or a business that creates an AI). You're willing to lie about who you are (or have your tool do so)? What else are you willing to lie to me about? I don't have time in my life for that. I'm out right here.
Similarly, would you consider it to be dishonest if my human colleague reviewed and made changes to my code, but I didn’t explicitly credit them?
Even if the code is line-for-line identical, the difference is in how much trust I am willing to give the code. If I have to work in the neighborhood of that code, I need to know what degree of skepticism I should be viewing it with.
ISTM the most efficient and objective solution is to invest in AI more on both sides of the fence.
Do you not think it is an overreaction to panic like this if I can do exactly what the undercover mode does by simply asking Claude?