Nik Pash, the AI head of Cline, who came under fire for his ‘imagine the smell’ comment as it was inevitably interpreted as a dig at Indians, issued a statement asserting that he would not apologize for making a ‘harmless joke’. He said he had been to four hackathons this year and all of them smelled bad. His ‘imagine the smell’ comment to a jampacked hackathon photo of xAi was in the context of that but he said he received even death threats as some people on social media made it look like a racist comment. Pash also tagged Elon Musk and said X did not become the place that he wanted it to be — to let people make jokes and have fun in peace. Pash attacked Indian-origin techie Deedy Das for adding fuel to the fire. The photo, which triggered the massive controversy, was posted by X user Taylor. “A full audience of hardcore builders and engineers at the @xai hackathon!” she wrote. The photo indeed showed a room full of men and women and many of them were visibly of Indian origin. As Pash commented, ‘imagine the smell’, it was seen as a jibe at Indians, as calling Indians smelly has become a part of regular anti-India/anti-South Asia hatred on social media. Nik’s boss Saoud Rizwan came to his rescue and said that he himself is of South Asian descent and he knows and works with Nik. “hey all, i’m founder/ceo at cline and of south asian descent myself. fun story cline was started at a hackathon which in fact was quite smelly. i work with pash everyday and can confirm this tweet was taken the wrong way,” Rizwan posted drawing more flak. Social media users told them to issue an apology instead of doubling down on the hate comment and many said they would stop subscribing to Cline. Pash said it has been an intense 48 hours for him and his team. “To be clear, I’m not going to apologize for making a harmless joke about hackathons smelling bad. I’ve been to 4 this year, they all smelled bad. I do expect an apology from people like @deedydas , who I’ve had numerous positive interactions with. Instead of being charitable with me, giving me a simulacrum of grace, they dogpiled on me and facilitated more senseless violent and truly odious death threats against me, my family, and my team,” he wrote. Deedy, the Indian-origin techie, apologized to Nik and said it’s painful to see constant racism against Indians. “Every time I’ve seen “imagine the smell”, it’s an attack on Indians,” he wrote.
