Ouch. New York Times suing Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement.
This is a no-win scenario. Whatever happens it’s bad.
I am not a fan of AI as it currently is engineered. Too many unknowns, too much brute force and too much training from the social and psychological sewer known as social meda. (Previous chatbots trained on social media have been criticized for being mysogynist, biggoted, ingorant and highly opinionated in matters
However…
If M$FT wins it spells the end of any current understanding of copyright(1).
If they lose, it could permanently damage MSFT when the world isn’t ready with a replacement yet(2), as well as damaging unknown number of start-ups and other investments in AI, from companies both large and small, in its current form.
Most likely — out of court settlement, undisclosed amount(s), and unknowable repercussions in both directions.
Either way, though, this sorely slows down AI, and the current method(s) used to train same. That’s probably good, except that a LOT of startup companies may be harmed now, and that’s the no-win part. What ever happens, the corporations are already heavily invested in a technology that might become illegal in its current form.
If AI being trained from social media is illegal, then so is Human usage of same. If my 5 year old is getting the bulk of his education from the Internet(3), how is that different from an AI System getting its “training” from scanning the Internet.
They need to be VERY careful here. Both sides, all sides, the entire World.
No matter which way it goes, the legal repurcussions could be extreme.
And unfortunately, courts do not consider the social / moral implications of their decisions. They are driven by precedent only. The New York Times has a good case, and in the name of all Humanity, they should drop it, with a stern warning to all AI firms that the entire process of AI needs to be examined, and examined again, and yanked off the market until issues such as this, and such as the criminal uses of AI(4) can be satisfactorily resolved.
2024 is going to be a very Big Year … to historian 200 years from now (if any). Pfui.
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(1) However, in my opinion copyright went out the window the day the first Internet search engine came online. The legal system just hasn’t quit making money (yet) off of supposed copyright infringement cases. Copyright was not taken into account when the framework for the Internet was put into place. There was a proposal for a system that would have made all published content safe and the owner clear (and receiving automatic compensation), but it would have slowed down the early Internet about 18 months, and the investors were already whining over any delays in their Humongous returns on investment. The sillies…
(2) Though the world had better get ready with a replacement for Microsoft soon, as their market share is slipping as more and more folks discover that Linux is still a very professional product, and as Windows continues to slip in quality and reliability. M$FT itself is becoming more of a holding company that a technology leader. They lead nothing at this time. So… who wants to take over the spot they have already voluntarily vacated?
(3) And you better believe that *is* where 5 year olds get their education now, public education being a very large waste of time, but also — even if done correctly — could scarely compete with electronic bombardment.
(4) Unfortunately, there is no hope of containing AI from all sorts of criminal uses now. That djinni has already been released. OpenAI is already out of the bottle, it will be in many, many copies all over the world, already. You can be certain phone scammers are already using it, also that Al Qaeda, Putin and all terrorists are exploring how to best leverage it to their own ends. That ship has sailed, as the expression goes.