Ok now we need to read your full TEDtalk about computer assistants and why they're over hated,
The whole hate over Clippy, as well as the other office assistants was, and still is, in my opinion completely overblown.
It is the kind of thing were a lot of people are tagging along to the hate, despite not knowing what it is/was about. And with the Media popularizing the topic even more, it is no wonder that it has become so "big" as it was...or at least it was claimed like that.
Beginning with Office 97 the Office Assistant was introduced in a way to help users of the office software, based on an algorithm.
So for this reason, some people thought it was an annoying feature to get asked the question if you need help which resulted in many, many colorful responses about how much they "disliked" the Office Assistant, with the hate of course usually directed at Clippy who was the face of the Office assistants.
The thing is, it was possible for the Office Assistant to be removed. You could get rid of it if it really bothered you too much. And even in the times of 1997 the Internet already had posts on there that explained ways how to remove the office assistant if it really was so annoying to you.
When the "popularity" of the "unpopularity of Clippy" became clear of course Microsoft took action (and also found a way to popularize it) by disabling the Office Assistant beginning with Office XP, and then removing it completely with Office 2007.
I honestly can't blame Microsoft for doing that, they saw the hate and took the opportunity to make (even more) money with their product, and we saw how well that worked given how popular Windows XP (and therefore Office XP) was.
In my opinion all the people who had such a dislike for Clippy where a bunch of office workers sitting in their tiny cubicles without air conditioning , frustrated with their jobs that tasked them to do the same thing day in and out, writing texts, filling out spreadsheets, creating a graph etc. etc. that they let out their frustrations with their mundane and monotone lives on an animated paperclip because they could not do that at HR.
And then of course there was the burst of the Dot Com bubble, and they all lost their jobs.
This perhaps "a bit" exaggerated comment holds in its core the truth of what I believe was the reason for the hate of the Office Assistant, that it was the scapegoat for a much larger problem / issue.
May it be computer illiteracy, not liking to be told what to do, the reluctance to accept change (in this case that Software constantly changed), or just the dislike for Electronics / PCs, it all was convoluted to hate on the Office Assistant who was there to recommend you tips and give you help.
But I guess instead of ignoring said help or refusing it, people just had to yell at their screen at some algorithm :P