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Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

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Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#41

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

olddustytrail wrote: post #32
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone learns to program by memorising and then re-using blocks of code, they're absolutely doing it wrong – but, also, they should be able to attribute their code. Most of the techniques I used, I've invented myself (or learnt from the standard documentation). When I use a technique that I haven't invented myself, I look up where it came from. Half the time, my version is actually radically different (and my att…

LLMs don't memorize and reuse. They don't really have a memory of any kind. I think the problem is they're more different from human learning than you think.

The LLM's trained parameters are a lossy memory of their training data.

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#42

Post by dnsmichi »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #9
RadiozRadioz wrote: post #3

Crucial: do they train on GPL code? If I am to use this tool, I must abide by the license terms of the training data. Even if it is found that the GPL does not cover LLM responses as derivative works, I would prefer to be on the safe side and refuse to use models trained on software with non-permissive licenses unless I am building Free Software.

GitLab seems to be a lot more responsive to feedback. It'd be worth asking them if they can publicly document their training set and provide a list of licenses and copyright notices.

GitLab team member here.

The training data is documented in https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/repository/code_sugg...

AI Transparency is important, all available AI features provide documentation for training data, and are built with privacy first.

The GitLab Duo announcement adds more feature details and plans. https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/06/22/meet-gitlab-duo-the...

The AI/ML blog series provides insights on experiments, and features being built. https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/04/24/ai-ml-in-devsecops-...

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#43

Post by Spivak »

johndough wrote: post #39
nonameiguess wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we'll see what the legal system says, but it's nearly impossible for me to imagine how anyone could ever justify saying a system trained on potentially millions of separate open-source projects can then be said to universally produce derivative works of any specific project it trained on. On the other hand, if a developer using this tool then goes and tells it "please write me a C library in the style of GNU…

GitHub Copilot copying Quake's fast inverse square root function is a famous example where Copilot copied GPL-licensed code only given the comment // fast inverse square root https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287

I mean if you ask the tool to produce a specific algorithm by it's very famous name then that's on you. If you ask DALL-E to draw Pikachu you can't be suprised Pikachu when it's a copyright violation.

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#44

Post by cj »

meowface wrote: post #28
colordrops wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless the LLM is cutting and pasting GPL code, I don't see how this differs from an engineer learning to code by referencing open source projects then creating their own project with its own licensing. I'd imagine these models could be tuned or at least a check could be added that no licensed code is being returned.

The same argument could be used to defend image generation models. (And, personally, I'm favorable to that argument for both.)

It's a blurry line, I think.

Imagine a prompt "Photo of person, Shutterstock ID 132456, with blue eyes instead of brown eyes, watermark removed"

If the prompt returns Shutterstock photo #123456 without the watermark (and with the different color eyes) but otherwise a near identical photo, I think most people would agree the output shouldn't be free to use without buying the original photo license from shutterstock.

To a certain extent, we're betting that these models won't accept or reply to prompts that are that specific (e.g. referencing a specific image for sale on shutterstock by its ID number). Or even just providing the photo in the prompt and asking the model to remove the watermark and upscale the image to a higher resolution.

I'm fearful that LLM's will become (or already are?) an easy copyright bypass tool that can be abused, in the example above, to put companies like shutterstock out of business.

This is the sort of problem regulation might help with.

I haven't read OpenAI's TOS, but I'm curious who owns the output of the model and whether OpenAI is transferring copyright/licensing liability onto the user or if OpenAI is representing that output from the model is 100% free to be used in any way the user wants.

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#46

Post by phil917 »

I just canceled my Copilot subscription last night. I definitely never saw the productivity boost that I’ve seen so many claim.

I actually feel like the suggestions seemed to get worse during my month of using it for some reason.

Towards the end, it started suggesting these large blocks of code (another issue I had with the interface as well) which were very not relevant to what I was attempting to write.

All in all, I’m very underwhelmed from my first experience with “AI enhanced” coding.

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#49

Post by lgas »

Spivak wrote: post #43
johndough wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub Copilot copying Quake's fast inverse square root function is a famous example where Copilot copied GPL-licensed code only given the comment // fast inverse square root https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287

I mean if you ask the tool to produce a specific algorithm by it's very famous name then that's on you. If you ask DALL-E to draw Pikachu you can't be suprised Pikachu when it's a copyright violation.

I don't know, it seems like a bit more of a gray area here than with Pikachu. For example, if I said "write me an implementation of fast inverse square root in rust"... and it did... that's certainly not a copyright violation. And if I said "ok, now port this rust code to C..." and it did, then that's certainly not a violation. But then why should I be penalized because the language I want it in happens to be the original language it was written in?

Re: Gitlab’s AI-assisted code suggestions

#50

Post by curtis3389 »

Okay, but how much are they charging?

It's getting really annoying how many sites force you into a trial just to find out how much it'll cost when it ends.

EDIT: Is this even positioned to compete with Copilot? What editors are there plugins for? There is surprisingly little information on the site.

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