alt Hacker NewsWhat about IP and copyright?
We got asked this question two weeks ago when we conducted a workshop on effective and responsible use of AI tools at a local conference. But how can you argue about about IP and copyright if the breakthrough of LLMs is potentially based on circumventing or breaking IP and copyright in the first place?
How do you feel about all of this?
Replies
I feel for Aaron Swartz, his poor mother, and what the US government put him through.
> how can you argue about about IP and copyright if the breakthrough of LLMs is potentially based on circumventing or breaking IP and copyright in the first place?
Easy answer: it’s not. Learning isn’t copyright infringement. Never has been and hopefully never will be.
It's no different than humans taking inspiration from IP and copyrighted works in their own creative endeavors. Imagine if programmers were unable to learn from open source. Or artists were unable to mimic styles and storylines. Musicians can't riff on things that others created.
> What about IP and copyright?
For training the models, and assuming that the content was itself acquired without other acts of infringement? That was ruled legal by the judge in the case I actually (skim) read the judgement of.
At least two companies engaged in acts of infringement to get training data. This is not lawful, and what Anthropic settled out of court for.