Troy Hunt's tongue-in-cheek 'Robophobia Equality Policy' for AI support bots

Hunt’s Weekly Update 501 centers on a satirical ‘Robophobia Equality Policy’ he drafted for Have I Been Pwned’s AI support bot, Bruce. The policy is a parody of inclusion language, demanding users treat the bot with courtesy, refrain from abuse based on its ‘artificial origin’ or ‘silicon-based existence,’ and stop reflexively demanding to ‘speak to a human’ simply because the responder is non-biological. Beneath the humor is an operational reality: the team lacks capacity to field every inbound request, and the bot is now the front line of support.

Hunt raises a half-serious question about whether interaction etiquette with AI agents will eventually be codified — through social norm, corporate policy, or even law. The framing reflects a broader 2026 shift where AI agents are no longer experimental add-ons but the default first-tier interface for support, with humans escalated to only on legitimate grounds like accessibility, safety, or account issues. The policy itself sketches what that escalation boundary looks like in practice.