alt Hacker NewsWould you accept the argument that compiling is modifying the bytes in the memory space reserved for an executable?
I can edit the executable at the byte level if I so desire, and this is also what compilers do, but the developer would instead be modifying the source code to make changes to the program and then feed that through a compiler.
Similarly, I can edit the weights of a neural network myself (using any tool I want) but the developers of the network would be altering the training dataset and the training code to make changes instead.
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I think the confusion for a lot of people comes from what they imagine compilation to be. In LLMs, the process is this (simplified):
define_architecture (what the operations are, and the order in which they're performed)
initialise_model(defined_arch) -> weights. Weights are "just" hardcoded values. Nothing more, nothing less.
The weights are the result of the arch, at "compile" time.
optimise_weights(weights, data) -> better_weights.
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You can, should you wish, totally release a model after iitialisation. It would be a useless model, but, again, the license does not deal with that. You would have the rights to run, modify and release the model, even if it were a random model.
tl;dr; Licenses deal with what you can do with a model. You can run it, modify it, redistribute it. They do not deal with how you modify them (i.e. what data you use to arrive at the "optimal" hardcoded values). See also my other reply with a simplified code example.
The big difference that an Open Source license gives me is that regardless of the tool I use to make the edits, if I rewrite the bytes of the Linux kernel, I can freely release my version with the same license, but if I rewrite the bytes of Super Mario Odyssey and try to release the modified version, I'll soon be having a very fun time at the bankruptcy court.