Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson Given what we've learned about the ethics of many software developers over the past several months, I wonder how many companies are currently shipping closed source code that's stolen from GPLed projects.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson writers and artists have been dealing with their craft being devalued for an incredibly long time, so they get it. Developers have never really had to deal with that, and generally speaking a lot of developers look down upon anyone not in tech, so they're just not going to trust what non tech people say. Developers are also, generally speaking, really bad at thinking about labor, and organizing. I've spoken to countless developers who said they'd never join a union, even if it was an option.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson developers: 'I hope no one realises our code can no longer be protected by copyright!'
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@owlex Are the training sets licensed or just strip mined from the web/redit/github/sourceforge? This was the cause for their “AI is theft” statement.
From a technical standpoint: Are these training sets free from bugs? If you use an ai tool to generate tests, are they useful tests? A useful test is one that tries to break the code instead of showing that the code “works. Tests that that exercise the interfaces or cover the code tend to not be “useful” tests.
@the_other_jon I'm aware of these problems, and many more (energy waste, OpenAI's exploitation of workers in Africa for manual training, copyright theft, data mining).
My question stands: Why is it wrong to use something critically while being aware of its problems? Especially when we're in the middle of such a massive technological shift that we should understand it. And when capitalism is forcing it into everything anyway, isn't informed usage better than ignorance?
And it's not even just about American companies anymore. We're in a global race for AI dominance now. This whole topic is incredibly complex.
I respect you for having these principles, but I think taking it out on a podcast, which reports about technology is a little weird. Though it's your decision
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@the_other_jon I'm aware of these problems, and many more (energy waste, OpenAI's exploitation of workers in Africa for manual training, copyright theft, data mining).
My question stands: Why is it wrong to use something critically while being aware of its problems? Especially when we're in the middle of such a massive technological shift that we should understand it. And when capitalism is forcing it into everything anyway, isn't informed usage better than ignorance?
And it's not even just about American companies anymore. We're in a global race for AI dominance now. This whole topic is incredibly complex.
I respect you for having these principles, but I think taking it out on a podcast, which reports about technology is a little weird. Though it's your decision
@owlex @the_other_jon If it is incredibly complex, then shouldn't the technology be democratically controlled? Shouldn't all tech that has such a massive impact on our lives be democratically controlled? I believe it should.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson When you realize that developers have always 'secretly' been jealous of creative types, it will make sense.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson as a Developer: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson this makes me so angry.
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@jamesthomson @ryanvade yeah there is a lot of managerial pressure and a lot of “use AI or your career will be over” FOMO.
It does suck.
@paulhebert @jamesthomson @ryanvade our company has a dashboard that shows how many times you used genai this month and anyone who has less than N uses gets put on blast. Almost* everyone in software engineering knows that measuring lines of code is stupid because one can simply insert many pointless lines of code to boost metrics. For some reason though, AI is different. That many of us are using these tools to generate N+1 shit posts a month would be funny if it wasn't contributing to climate polycrises
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@jamesthomson @ryanvade yeah there is a lot of managerial pressure and a lot of “use AI or your career will be over” FOMO.
It does suck.
@paulhebert @jamesthomson @ryanvade You guys have a choice? For artists it's just "Your career is now over." Perhaps that's the difference here.
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@owlex @the_other_jon If it is incredibly complex, then shouldn't the technology be democratically controlled? Shouldn't all tech that has such a massive impact on our lives be democratically controlled? I believe it should.
I'm not sure we need to democratically control the technology itself, but we absolutely need to hold companies accountable for their methods. And since these models are built on OUR collective knowledge, we should demand open weight models and not be forbidden from using them.
The true impact of LLMs is still unfolding. If they turn out to be like the telephone or internet, then yes, strong regulatory control is needed. But if they're more like one compiler among many, maybe not.
What's clear: We need to close the legal loopholes that let companies profit parasitically from society without giving back. Democratic control means informed engagement, not avoidance.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson Not all developers are flapping their arms with joy amid these developments.
For example, I stopped sharing my photos AND code, and not using AI to any capacity.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson My theory is many (most?) software developers are enthusiastically jumping to the LLM bandwagon because many (most?) software devs just hate software development
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@the_other_jon I'm aware of these problems, and many more (energy waste, OpenAI's exploitation of workers in Africa for manual training, copyright theft, data mining).
My question stands: Why is it wrong to use something critically while being aware of its problems? Especially when we're in the middle of such a massive technological shift that we should understand it. And when capitalism is forcing it into everything anyway, isn't informed usage better than ignorance?
And it's not even just about American companies anymore. We're in a global race for AI dominance now. This whole topic is incredibly complex.
I respect you for having these principles, but I think taking it out on a podcast, which reports about technology is a little weird. Though it's your decision
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@jamesthomson the amount of podcasts I listen to is dwindling at this rate. The amount of “yeah but look Claude my best pal made an app for me so it’s all good” is making my blood boil
Related: I’m looking for suggestions to add more diversity to my tech podcasts rotation, something different than 3 middle age white US dudes with enough money to buy Porsches.
(still love you @atpfm) -
Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson alse developers: Whaaaah!!! Where did my 100 dollar credits go in two days...
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@jamesthomson honestly it seems best for coding...
@colo_lee @jamesthomson people that know jackshit about coding would say that...
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson
I suspect that these developers are the same ones who were cut'n'pasting their code from stackoverflow before.I know I personally wouldn't want to leave the fun part to AI.
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@lorimolson @jamesthomson Came here to say the same. Developers were also among those whose content was slurped up by big tech to feed their copyright laundering apparatus.
@NfNitLoop @lorimolson @jamesthomson
Feels important to point out that, unlike artists and writers, programmers that speak negatively about AI stand a very real chance of getting passed over for jobs and promotions for being 'luddites'. Literally had the CTO soliciting 'AI Success Stories' from staff a couple weeks ago.
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Writers: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Artists: Generative AI models were built on our stolen works, are deeply unethical, and risk devaluing our entire profession.
Developers: Wheeeeeeeeee!
@jamesthomson It is bizarre to watch the overpaid Silicon Valley developer class enthusiastically abolish itself
