OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sam Altman are in massive trouble. OpenAI is getting sued in the US for illegally using content from the internet to train their LLM or large language models

  • Geek_King@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I very much enjoy ChatGPT and I’m excited to see where that technology goes, but lawsuits like this feel so shaky to me. OpenAI used publicly available data to train their AI model. If I wanted to get better at writing, and I went out and read a ton of posted text and articles to learn, would I need to go ask permission from each person who posted that information? What if I used what I learn to make a style similar to how a famous journalist writes, then got a job and made money from the knowledge I gained?

    The thing that makes these types of lawsuits have a hard time succeeding is proving that they “Stole” data and used it directly. But my understanding of learning models in language and art is that they learn from it more so then use the material directly. I got access to midjourney last year August, and my first thought was, better enjoy this before it gets sued into uselessness. The problem is, people can sue these companies, but this genie can’t be put back into the bottle. Even if OpenAI get hobbled in what they can do, other companies in other countries will do the same and these law suits will stop nothing.

    We’re going to see this technology mature and get baked into literally every aspect of life.

    • crackgammon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Absolutely agree with you. It’s in theory no different to a child learning from what they’re exposed to in the world around them. But I guess the true desire from some would be to get royalty payments every time a brain made use of their “intellectual property” so I don’t think this argument would necessarily convince.

    • pizza_rolls@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think the more realistic way it would be handled is that the site you published your content on puts in its terms of service that you agree that stuff you put on their site can be used for AI training, and openAI buys the data from them, either via an API key or a data dump or whatever.

      But I see merit in not allowing companies to profit off of whatever content already exists without any sort of consent. And I don’t agree with the idea it’s like a child learning… You aren’t raising a child to sell a subscription to their knowledge and profit off of it