wondering what everyone's thoughts are regarding open sourcing your own code you've kept under lock and key for a long time, with the rise of AI and inability to enforce licenses or control whether code is used for training.
Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
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Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#2> with the rise of AI and inability to enforce licenses or control whether code is used for training.
The inability to precisely enforce license abuse has always been a problem with Open-Sourcing your code. I don't understand how someone would see AI as a dealbreaker in the real-world of Open Source pragmatism.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#3You aren't going to have a choice - anything you make available on the web will be consumed by AI regardless of the license. That is essentially going to be the primary purpose of the web going forward, to provide training data for AI.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#4I think this is the wrong question. The question assumes that AI is a derivative to your code. The reality is that there will come a day, sooner than you like, when the AI can replicate the application you wrote without your code. In that world, what does it matter what code is open vs closed?
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#5You'll need to clarify what your specific goals and concerns are. Most of my code is open source because I want people to build derivatives. There's lots of license variations to consider.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#6You'll need to clarify what your specific goals and concerns are. Most of my code is open source because I want people to build derivatives. There's lots of license variations to consider.
Also, depending how the legalese shakes out, you could still be compensated if they stole your code.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#7I think this is the wrong question. The question assumes that AI is a derivative to your code. The reality is that there will come a day, sooner than you like, when the AI can replicate the application you wrote without your code. In that world, what does it matter what code is open vs closed?
Royalties. There's yet a solid legal framework.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#8A lot of companies avoid using GPL code at all, because they don't want to even accidentally find their own proprietary code subject to being released under the GPL.
I can imagine that some similar licensing concept could be applied to copyrightable works with respect to AI training. Use a legally restricted work for AI training, and your entire AI training set is subject to free public release?
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#9A lot of companies avoid using GPL code at all, because they don't want to even accidentally find their own proprietary code subject to being released under the GPL. I can imagine that some similar licensing concept could be applied to copyrightable works with respect to AI training. Use a legally restricted work for AI training, and your entire AI training set is subject to free public release?
No such licensing concept could work. The AI companies' argument is that what they're doing counts as fair use, so they don't need to abide by any license. If that argument is true, then such a thing wouldn't do anything, and if it's false, then such a thing is unnecessary, because they're already violating even the most lax licenses (e.g., MIT) by failing to provide the required attribution.
Re: Ask HN: Is open sourcing your code still an option with the rise of AI?
#10You'll need to clarify what your specific goals and concerns are. Most of my code is open source because I want people to build derivatives. There's lots of license variations to consider.
Also, depending how the legalese shakes out, you could still be compensated if they stole your code.
and how are you going to be compensated when an AI model has been trained on it, and your code is spit out? and who will pay for the litigation?