What is a 'meat proxy'? The new term for coworkers who blindly share AI output

Have a coworker who keeps sending messages straight from ChatGPT? They might be a "meat proxy." Kilito Chan/Getty Images "Meat proxy" refers to someone who sends outputs straight from Claude or ChatGPT without analyzing them.

It was popularized by Niklas Gruhn, a German software engineer.

Techies on X are using the term "meat proxy" to call out developers who ship unreviewed AI code .

Your AI-pilled coworker is getting a bit… meaty.

Many office workers know what it's like to be inundated with unreviewed AI outputs .

Maybe you have a coworker who pastes messages from ChatGPT right into Slack.

Maybe your manager keeps using too many em-dashes, or your direct report can't explain the code they just shipped.

There's a new word for these AI users: "meat proxy." Techies on X are calling them "very annoying" and "the first ones to be replaced." For some, being a meat proxy might even be the "biggest career risk of 2026." What is a meat proxy? The term "meat proxy" was popularized by Niklas Gruhn, a German software engineer, in an August 3 blog post.

Gruhn wrote that his friends were quoting Claude in his Slack channels and group chats.

"This is not adding value," Gruhn wrote.

"I can talk to Claude myself.

It's going to be faster and I get to control the context.

I don't need a meat proxy in between." The "in between" here is key.

A meat proxy merely serves as a middleman between the AI chatbot and the recipient.