A new site called hcker.news launched as a mirror of Hacker News that filters out AI-generated content. The project uses a URL parameter, ?ai=exclude, to strip posts and comments flagged as machine-written. It appeared as a Show HN submission on September 11, 2026, drawing discussion about how AI detection is applied to a community already saturated with AI-related posts. The tool does not replace Hacker News itself. It offers an alternate view of the same feed, with AI-authored items removed before display.
This is the kind of small project that quietly says something big. One toggle. No algorithm overhaul. Just a filter that says: I want the human version of this feed. I love that. It treats AI content as a choice, not a default. That is exactly how this should work.
We are going to see more of this. Not less AI. More control over where it shows up. People want human voices in some rooms and machine speed in others. Both can be true. The internet is not one feed anymore. It is a thousand feeds, and we are finally getting to pick which ones we walk into. Hacker News without AI is not a rejection of the future. It is a sign we are mature enough to shape it.