It’s not called being mean. It’s called “machine learning.”

There are a lot of tragic details in Tony Stark’s character journey, but back when he was just coming up with the concept for the Iron Man suit, the most heartbreaking thing about it was the way he treated his robot assistants.

Seriously, those guys were trying their best. Remember that poor robot aide who would douse Tony even when he was not on fire? How many times did Tony call him useless and threaten to donate him to the community college?

But according to a new Reddit theory, this isn’t about Tony being mean to his robots.

“I think Tony uses Dum-E to establish negative/abusive dialogue so that his AI can be more accurate with his sarcastic and satirical commands. I would imagine his early prototypes taking something he jokingly said seriously and causing mayhem,” Redditor JRVanElten suggested.

To be fair, Tony himself is far more prone to accidental chaos than his robots, but it’s only natural that he would want to protect those around him from robots that might follow his lead.

So the next time you rewatch the first Iron Man movie, don’t feel bad for Tony’s robotic assistants. These guys are learning. And judging by how easily J.A.R.V.I.S. could parry Tony’s jokes, they have come a long way.