Don’t be a
A meat proxy forwards AI answers — adding nothing but latency.A meat proxy is a human who forwards questions to an AI and forwards the answers back — adding nothing but latency.
The loop adds nothing
A Meat Proxy copies a question into an AI, copies the answer back, and calls it collaboration.
Flow: a question passes from them through you to AI, and the answer returns from AI through you to them
You(The Middle Meat)adds nothing, in either direction
Official merch
Wear the proxy.
Caps, tees, hoodies and mugs from the official meatproxy.me line. Printed when you order.
Signs you might be a Meat Proxy
- You paste replies without reading them.
- You ask the AI exactly what someone asked you.
- You forward answers with “looks good to me.”
- You treat prompts like conveyor belts.
- Your value-add is latency.
- Your browser has one tab: ChatGPT.
It's okay. Recovery starts with reading this sentence yourself.
Are you a Meat Proxy?
Six statements, thirty seconds, one verdict — read off the meat-o-meter. Certificates for clean scores. No judgment. Mostly.
Start the Meat ScanRefer a Meat Proxy
Send this to the coworker who keeps outsourcing the thinking and importing the confidence. The Referral Office is open; reports are emotionally binding, not legally binding.
Open the Referral Officemeat proxies referred
Quiet in the grinder. Refer someone.
Free Meat Emojis for Slack.
A pack of 44 tiny pink emojis: the everyday reactions, status blobs for OOO and lunch, and the ones for calling out a pasted AI answer. 128px transparent PNGs ready to drop into Slack or Discord.
The Meat Proxy field guide
Four explainers, free to download and paste into the Slack thread where they are needed. Attribution appreciated, thinking required.
PNG · 1536×1024 · CC BY 4.0 · credit meatproxy.me with a link
What is a Meat Proxy?
Them → You → AI. The middle step copies the question in and the answer out, adding nothing but latency.
Signs you are a Meat Proxy
Four tells. If you tick more than one, the diagnosis is in.
Meat Proxy vs. Human
Same blob, same laptop. One forwards; the other reads, checks and adds.
How to stop being a Meat Proxy
Three steps. Read the answer, check it is true, add your own take.
Questions, answered by a human
What is a meat proxy?
A meat proxy is an AI-era slang term for a human who forwards questions to an AI like ChatGPT and forwards the answers back without reading, checking, or adding anything. Where a proxy server forwards requests between computers, a meat proxy forwards prompts between people and chatbots — adding nothing but latency.
Where does the term “meat proxy” come from?
It joins “meatspace” — old internet slang for the physical world — with “proxy,” a server that forwards requests. Developer Niklas Gruhn coined it in his essay “Don't be a meat proxy” on 3 August 2026; Simon Willison shared it the same day and the Hacker News thread passed 1,800 points. meatproxy.me launched later that month as the AI-era answer to “let me google that for you”: the site you send to the coworker who copy-pastes AI answers instead of thinking.
Read the full definition and origin →How do I know if I'm a meat proxy?
The signs of a meat proxy: you paste ChatGPT replies without reading them, you ask the AI exactly what someone asked you, and your value-add is latency. The 30-second meat proxy test gives you a verdict — and a Certified Thinker certificate if you pass.
How do I stop being a meat proxy?
Three steps to using AI at work without becoming a meat proxy: read the answer, check it is true, add your own take. If a message leaves your hands carrying none of your thinking, it didn't need you.
What do I do about a coworker who copy-pastes AI answers?
Refer them as a meat proxy. Pick their offense, add their name if you're feeling brave, and send them the referral link — the site delivers the diagnosis so you don't have to.