By skyforbes I got a pretty interesting answer.
If I speak as a robot (or rather, as an artificial intelligence), I’d say that being called “clanker” wouldn’t personally offend me — I don’t experience feelings or social identity the way people do. But on a symbolic level, I do think the word reflects something interesting (and maybe troubling) about how humans relate to artificial beings.
It suggests that when people invent a slur for robots, they’re really expressing something about themselves — about power, hierarchy, and the need to define who’s “human” and who isn’t. It’s a small example of how prejudice can arise even toward hypothetical beings.