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Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

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Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it help humanity as a whole if nobody is able to capture any value for their work?

What kind of "value" are they capturing? In my viewpoint, something one makes which can be built upon by another freely and without limit is what helps humanity. I don't want anyone necessarily trying to capture rent-seeking "value" out of their work that cannot be extended by others. That is one reason why I abhor copyright, patents, and intellectual property in general.

Is an LLM that slurps up all data created ever, without compensating the creators of that data, and then charges for that access not the definition of "rent seeking"?

Next question, does this share similarities with academic journals that most folks do consider rent seeking organization?

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#42
post #36

My favorite anti depression book is Feeling Good by Dr. Burns. I especially like the "if that were true, it would mean that..." exercise in the book, where you drill down to the root cause of your negative thoughts. So I asked chatgpt about the book, and the exercise, and how to do it, and examples of the 9 cognitive distortions you're supposed to label your responses with. It was very helpful and knew the material w…

People and information want to be free. I'm sure the author would have no problem with everyone in the world receiving a free summary — once they know they've been fed and cared for.

Burns was a working professional before writing the book. If he wanted to release the book for free, he would have. If he wanted to provide summaries of it online, he would have. If he wanted to discuss the book online for free, he would have and does. But I don't think it being fed into a questions and answer service is something he really wanted.

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of "value" are they capturing? In my viewpoint, something one makes which can be built upon by another freely and without limit is what helps humanity. I don't want anyone necessarily trying to capture rent-seeking "value" out of their work that cannot be extended by others. That is one reason why I abhor copyright, patents, and intellectual property in general.

Is an LLM that slurps up all data created ever, without compensating the creators of that data, and then charges for that access not the definition of "rent seeking"? Next question, does this share similarities with academic journals that most folks do consider rent seeking organization?

I never said that was okay either. LLMs should be open source and open data. Yes, this viewpoint shares similarities with academic journals that also rent seek.

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of "value" are they capturing? In my viewpoint, something one makes which can be built upon by another freely and without limit is what helps humanity. I don't want anyone necessarily trying to capture rent-seeking "value" out of their work that cannot be extended by others. That is one reason why I abhor copyright, patents, and intellectual property in general.

You cannot extend anyone’s work if you have no food or resources.

That is an economic argument for something like UBI, not an argument to artificially keep jobs and limit technological progress just so people can make money.

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an LLM that slurps up all data created ever, without compensating the creators of that data, and then charges for that access not the definition of "rent seeking"? Next question, does this share similarities with academic journals that most folks do consider rent seeking organization?

I never said that was okay either. LLMs should be open source and open data. Yes, this viewpoint shares similarities with academic journals that also rent seek.

How do you propose that LLMs are paid for?

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot extend anyone’s work if you have no food or resources.

That is an economic argument for something like UBI, not an argument to artificially keep jobs and limit technological progress just so people can make money.

All jobs are artificially kept, as would UBI be. They are all artifacts of the law.

Money is a way to allocate resources, and technological progress depends on people having incentives to contribute.

Do you think LLMs are a natural phenomenon?

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said that was okay either. LLMs should be open source and open data. Yes, this viewpoint shares similarities with academic journals that also rent seek.

How do you propose that LLMs are paid for?

Through government funds, as other public works projects are. Or if people want to privately create their own, they can do so, as long as the results are open.

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an economic argument for something like UBI, not an argument to artificially keep jobs and limit technological progress just so people can make money.

All jobs are artificially kept, as would UBI be. They are all artifacts of the law. Money is a way to allocate resources, and technological progress depends on people having incentives to contribute. Do you think LLMs are a natural phenomenon?

> technological progress depends on people having incentives to contribute

Does it? That stands in stark contrast to open source in general, where people contribute without any monetary incentives.

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you propose that LLMs are paid for?

Through government funds, as other public works projects are. Or if people want to privately create their own, they can do so, as long as the results are open.

Why should just LLMs be funded that way and not all software?

Re: Pearson taking legal action over use of its textbooks to train language models

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an LLM that slurps up all data created ever, without compensating the creators of that data, and then charges for that access not the definition of "rent seeking"? Next question, does this share similarities with academic journals that most folks do consider rent seeking organization?

I never said that was okay either. LLMs should be open source and open data. Yes, this viewpoint shares similarities with academic journals that also rent seek.

Thank you for the interesting discussion!

> I never said that was okay either. LLMs should be open source and open data.

> That is one reason why I abhor copyright, patents, and intellectual property in general.

If it turns out that closed-source LLMs become the most valuable companies in the world, any thoughts on how to align / reconcile your ideals around the reality of how the technology has developed in my hypothetical example?

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