this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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Obligatory: I'm anti-AI, mostly anti-technology
That said, I can't say that I mind LLMs using copyrighted materials that it accesses legally/appropriately (lots of copyrighted content may be freely available to some extent, like news articles or song lyrics)
I'm open to arguments correcting me. I'd prefer to have another reason to be against this technology, not arguing on the side of frauds like Sam Altman. Here's my take:
All content created by humans follows consumption of other content. If I read lots of Vonnegut, I should be able to churn out prose that roughly (or precisely) includes his idiosyncrasies as a writer. We read more than one author; we read dozens or hundreds over our lifetimes. Likewise musicians, film directors, etc etc.
If an LLM consumes the same copyrighted content and learns how to copy its various characteristics, how is it meaningfully different from me doing it and becoming a successful writer?
Yup. Violating IP licenses is a great reason to prevent it. According to current law, if they get Alice license for the book they should be able to use it how they want.
I'm not permitted to pirate a book just because I only intend to read it and then give it back. AI shouldn't be able to either if people can't.
Beyond that, we need to accept that might need to come up with new rules for new technology. There's a lot of people, notably artists, who object to art they put on their website being used for training. Under current law if you make it publicly available, people can download it and use it on their computer as long as they don't distribute it. That current law allows something we don't want doesn't mean we need to find a way to interpret current law as not allowing it, it just means we need new laws that say "fair use for people is not the same as fair use for AI training".
That is the trillion-dollar question, isn’t it?
I’ve got two thoughts to frame the question, but I won’t give an answer.
Because you are a human. Not an immortal corporation.
I am tired of people trying to have iNtElLeCtUaL dIsCuSsIoN about/with entities that would feed you feet first into a wood chipper if it thought it could profit from it.
Right. The problem is not the fact it consumes the information, the problem is if the user uses it to violate copyright. It’s just a tool after all.
Like, I’m capable of violating copyright in infinitely many ways, but I usually don’t.
The problem is that the user usually can't tell if the AI output is infringing someone's copyright or not unless they've seen all the training data.
Except the reason Altman is so upset has nothing to do with this very valid discussion.
As I commented elsewhere:
Yes, I’ve been listening to Ed Zitron.