内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/viral-rant-on-why-everyone-in-seattle-hates-ai-strikes-a-nerve-sparks-debate-over-citys-tech-vibe/

内容总结：

近日，一篇关于西雅图科技圈对人工智能态度的博客文章引发广泛讨论。前微软工程师乔纳森·雷迪在文中描述，他在西雅图展示其AI地图项目时遭遇“瞬间的敌意”，并称“在当地咖啡馆提到AI，人们的反应就像你在提倡使用石棉”。雷迪认为，这种情绪源于大科技公司的AI实践——在裁员潮中，AI成为唯一安全的职业领域，而被迫使用的AI工具往往效率低下，导致员工产生“习得性无助”。

文章迅速在技术社区引发两极反响。部分从业者表示共鸣，前Indeed人工智能伦理主管特雷·考西指出，他在西雅图社交时常刻意回避提及自己职位中的“AI”部分，认为西雅图可能是美国主要科技中心里对AI抵触情绪最明显的城市。但亦有批评者认为该观点以偏概全。西雅图创业家马塞洛·卡尔布奇强调，分歧并非地域性，而是存在于倦怠的大公司员工与充满活力的创业者之间。风险投资人克里斯·德沃尔则直指文章有“标题党”之嫌，混淆了大科技公司与创业生态的差异。

值得关注的是，这场争论折射出西雅图在AI时代面临的深层张力。一方面，微软、亚马逊等科技巨头及华盛顿大学、艾伦人工智能研究所等机构奠定了雄厚的技术基础；另一方面，当地缺乏像旧金山湾区那样密集的明星AI创业公司。有观察者指出，西雅图历史上对集权系统的警惕文化——从垃圾摇滚乐到WTO抗议——可能使当地人对当前由少数大公司主导的AI发展模式更为敏感。

尽管存在争议，多数社区领袖仍对西雅图的AI创新潜力持乐观态度，认为其深厚的工程师储备是培育AI原生企业的关键优势。如何将技术底蕴转化为创业活力，或将成为这座科技名城在AI时代破局的关键。

中文翻译：

西雅图所有人都讨厌人工智能吗？

这是本周因一篇爆款博客文章而引发的惊人问题之一。文章作者乔纳森·雷迪曾是微软工程师，近期离开这家科技巨头投身自主创业。他在文中描述了自己向全球工程师展示AI驱动的地图项目Wanderfugl的经历：从东京到旧金山，各地人们都充满好奇；而在西雅图，"只要听到'AI'这个词，人们瞬间就表现出敌意"。

"如今在西雅图咖啡馆提起人工智能，人们的反应就像你在鼓吹使用石棉。"雷迪写道。

他认为问题的根源在于大型科技公司的AI体验——尤其是微软。根据与前同事的交流及自身任职经历，他描述了一个这样的职场环境：在大规模裁员背景下，AI成为唯一安全的职业领域，员工被迫使用效果常逊于人工操作的Copilot工具。

雷迪指出，这导致了一种习得性无助：聪明人开始相信AI既无意义又遥不可及。

他的文章在Hacker News上引发数百条评论，LinkedIn上也出现诸多回应。部分人认为他切中要害。前Indeed人工智能伦理主管特雷·考西表示感同身受，回忆自己与西雅图本地人交谈时会刻意回避提及职务头衔中的"AI"部分。他推测这座城市可能已成为美国主要科技中心里反AI情绪最集中的区域。

但也有人批评该文章以偏概全。西雅图科技界资深人士马塞洛·卡尔布奇认为，分歧不在于地域而在于文化——是身心俱疲的大厂员工与充满活力的创业者之间的差异。他指出，在AI需求增长的同时，裁员却使工作量翻倍，造成了远超普通职业倦怠的压力水平。

"如果你接触西雅图的创业者和投资者，会发现氛围截然不同。"卡尔布奇写道。

西雅图风险投资家克里斯·德沃尔态度更为轻蔑，称雷迪的文章是"标题党"，并批评其将大厂普通员工的体验与西雅图创业生态混为一谈。

这与GeekWire近期关于"AI时代西雅图的双重叙事"的报道不谋而合：一方面是受大规模裁员冲击的企业之城，另一方面是对新工具充满激情的创业之城。

Salesforce总监瑞安·布拉什提出了一个有趣的理论：西雅图的任何反AI情绪都可追溯至这座城市"源远流长的反权威思想暗流"，从垃圾摇滚乐到WTO抗议运动皆可见端倪。

"西雅图历来对集权榨取个体的体系保持警惕，"布拉什评论道，"而当前AI呈现的许多特征（数据收集规模、资源集中于少数大公司）在这里引发的反响可能与其他地区不同。"

雷迪在文末总结道，西雅图仍拥有世界级人才，但与旧金山不同的是，这座城市已丧失"改变世界"的信念。

在今年早些时候的专题报道《西雅图能否主宰AI时代？》中，我们邀请投资者和创业者评估这座城市的创业生态潜力。许多社区领袖持乐观态度，部分原因在于对建设AI原生公司至关重要的工程人才密度。

但正如后续报道所指出的，尽管坐拥微软、亚马逊等超大规模企业，以及华盛顿大学、艾伦人工智能研究所等世界级研究机构和大量硅谷分支机构，西雅图仍缺乏在湾区随处可见的明星AI初创企业。

这是因为西雅图"憎恶AI"吗？这种说法似乎有些牵强。但本周的讨论无疑再次提醒我们：在AI时代，西雅图的科技企业、人才与创业活动之间正持续发生着动态博弈。

相关阅读：西雅图蓄势待发迎接AI创新浪潮——但或许需要更多创业活力

英文来源：

Does everyone in Seattle hate AI?
That’s one of the surprising questions to arise this week in response to a viral blog post penned by Jonathon Ready, a former Microsoft engineer who recently left the tech giant to pursue his own startup.
In the post, Ready describes showing off his AI-powered mapping project, Wanderfugl, to engineers around the world. Everywhere from Tokyo to San Francisco, people are curious. In Seattle, “instant hostility the moment they heard ‘AI,'” he said.
“Bring up AI in a Seattle coffee shop now and people react like you’re advocating asbestos,” he wrote.
The culprit, Ready argues, is the Big Tech AI experience — specifically, Microsoft’s. Based on conversations with former colleagues and his own time at the company, he describes a workplace where AI became the only career-safe territory amid widespread layoffs, and everyone was forced to use Copilot tools that were often worse than doing the work manually.
The result, Ready says, is a kind of learned helplessness: smart people coming to believe that AI is both pointless and beyond their reach.
His post drew hundreds of comments on Hacker News and other responses on LinkedIn. Some felt he hit the nail on the head. Trey Causey, former head of AI ethics at Indeed, said he could relate, recalling that he would avoid volunteering the “AI” part of his job title in conversations with Seattle locals. He speculated the city might be the epicenter of anti-AI sentiment among major U.S. tech hubs.
But others said the piece paints with too broad a brush. Seattle tech vet Marcelo Calbucci argues the divide isn’t geographic but cultural — between burned-out Big Tech employees and energized founders. He pointed to layoffs that doubled workloads even as AI demand increased, creating stress levels beyond simple burnout.
“If you hang out with founders and investors in Seattle, the energy is completely different,” Calbucci wrote.
Seattle venture capitalist Chris DeVore was more dismissive, calling Ready’s post “clickbait-y” and criticizing what he saw as a conflation of the experiences of Big Tech individual contributors with Seattle’s startup ecosystem.
That dovetails with GeekWire’s recent story about “a tale of two Seattles in the age of AI”: a corporate city shell-shocked by massive job cuts, and a startup city brimming with excitement about new tools.
Ryan Brush, a director at Salesforce, put forth an intriguing theory: that any anti-AI sentiment in Seattle can be traced to the city’s “undercurrent of anti-authority thinking that goes way back,” from grunge music to the WTO protests.
“Seattle has a long memory for being skeptical of systems that centralize power and extract from individuals,” Brush commented. “And a lot of what we see with AI today (the scale of data collection, how concentrated it is in a few big companies) might land differently here than it does elsewhere.”
Ready ends his post by concluding that Seattle still has world-class talent — but unlike San Francisco, it has lost the conviction that it can change the world.
In our story earlier this year — Can Seattle own the AI era? — we asked investors and founders to weigh the city’s startup ecosystem potential. Many community leaders shared optimism, in part due to the density of engineering talent that’s crucial to building AI-native companies.
But, as we later reported, Seattle lacks superstar AI startups that are easy to find in the Bay Area — despite being home to hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Amazon, as well as world-class research institutions (University of Washington; Allen Institute for AI) and substantial Silicon Valley outposts.
Is it because Seattle “hates AI”? That seems like a bit of a stretch. But this week’s discussion is certainly another reminder of the evolving interplay between Seattle’s tech corporations, talent, and startup activity in the AI era.
Related: Seattle is poised for massive AI innovation impact — but could use more entrepreneurial vibes