Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coding agents could make free software matter again

gjlondon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 351 posts

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#231

Post by mulr00ney »

latexr wrote: post #179
627467 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was made redundant recently "due to AI" (questionable) and it feels like my works in some way contributed to my redundancy where my works contributed to the profits made by these AI megacorps while I am left a victim. I think anyone here can understand and even share that feeling. And I agree with your "questionable" - its just the lame HR excuse du jour. My 2c: - AI megacorps aren't the only ones gaining, we all…

> AI megacorps aren't the only ones gaining, we all are. No, no we are not. > the leverage you have to build and ship today is higher than it was five years ago. I don’t want more “leverage to build and ship”, I want to live in a world where people aren’t so disconnected from reality and so lonely they have romantic relationships with a chat window; where they don’t turn off their brains and accept any wrong informat…

>I don’t want more “leverage to build and ship”, I want to live in a world where people aren’t so disconnected from reality and so lonely they have romantic relationships with a chat window; where they don’t turn off their brains and accept any wrong information because it comes from a machine; where propaganda, mass manipulation, and surveillance aren’t at the ready hands of any two-bit despot; where people aren’t so myopic that they only look at their own belly button and use case for a tool that they are incapable of recognising all the societal harms around them.

Preach. Every time I read people doing this weird LARP on this website of "you have so much more leverage, great time to be a founder" I want to put my head through the drywall.

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#232

Post by simonask »

pegasus wrote: post #204
latexr wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI megacorps aren't the only ones gaining, we all are. No, no we are not. > the leverage you have to build and ship today is higher than it was five years ago. I don’t want more “leverage to build and ship”, I want to live in a world where people aren’t so disconnected from reality and so lonely they have romantic relationships with a chat window; where they don’t turn off their brains and accept any wrong informat…

But LLMs can also explain code, in fact they're fantastic at that. They can also be used to build anti-censorship, surveillance-avoidance and fact-checking tools. We are all empowered by them, it's just up to us to employ them so as to nudge society towards where we'd like it to go. Instead of giving up prematurely.

[dead]

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#233

Post by Akronymus »

oblio wrote: post #221
eru wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as they don't distribute the model's weights, even a strict interpretation of the GPL should be fine. Same reason Google doesn't have to upstream changes to the Linux kernel they only deploy in-house.

But LLMs do distribute the derived code they generate outside of their company. That's their entire point.

But wouldn't that be like some company using gpl licensed code to host a code generator for something? At least in a legal interpretation. Or is that different?

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#234

Post by Bockit »

wickedsight wrote: post #153
Bockit wrote: post #10

It’s such a fun time to have 1+ decade(s) of experience in software. Knowing what simple and good are (for me), and being able to articulate it has let me create so much personal software for myself and my family. It has really felt like turning ideas into reality, about as fast as I can think of them or they can suggest them. And adding specific features, just for our needs. The latest one was a slack canvas replace…

Where/how do you host your family apps to have them conveniently available to your household? This is the thing I'm struggling with most.

I have a Mac mini and I put every device that needs access on Tailscale

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#235

Post by jacquesm »

apatheticonion wrote: post #21

Having over a decade of open source software I've written freely available online, I actually really appreciate the value that AI && LLMs have provided me. The thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the fact that my works were likely included in the training data and, if it doesn't violate my licenses (GNU 2/3), it certainly feels against the spirit of what I intended when distributing my works. I was made redu…

And even if it would be enforceable, would you be able and willing to go through the energy and monetary expenses to enforce it? Especially against a big corporation willing to fight you.

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#236

Post by jacquesm »

As1287 wrote: post #113
throwaway27448 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intellectual property never made much sense to begin with. But it certainly makes no sense now, where the common creator has no protections against greedy corporate giants who are happy to wield the full weight of the courts to stifle any competition for longer than we'll be alive. Or, in the case of LLMs, recklessly swing about software they don't understand while praying to find a business model.

Poor billionaire Rowling has no protections against the evil corporations. Everyone using this argument has no clue about artists and and writers. Yes, corporations take a large cut, but creative people welcomed copyright and made the bargain and got fame in the process. Which was always better for them than let Twitch take 70% and be a sharecropper. Silicon Valley middlemen are far worse than the media and music ind…

The reason you mention 'poor billionaire Rowling' is most likely because she's the only billionaire author that you know by name. If authors regularly became billionaires you'd have left out that name.

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#237

Post by vova_hn2 »

not_paid_by_yt wrote: post #96
throwaway27448 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intellectual property never made much sense to begin with. But it certainly makes no sense now, where the common creator has no protections against greedy corporate giants who are happy to wield the full weight of the courts to stifle any competition for longer than we'll be alive. Or, in the case of LLMs, recklessly swing about software they don't understand while praying to find a business model.

hey just don't try to copy their LLM by distilling it, cause that's "theft", if we weren't all doomed anyways this industry would have never been allowed to exist in the first place, but I guess this is just what the last few decades of our civilization will look like.

> hey just don't try to copy their LLM by distilling it, cause that's "theft"

They can call it whatever they want, but I don't think that it is illegal.

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#238

Post by GorbachevyChase »

dabedee wrote: post #226

This is an interesting take. I think a critical missing piece from this article is how the use of coding agents will essentially enable the circumvention of copyleft licenses. Some project that was recently posted on HN is already selling this service [1][2]. It rewrites code/modules/projects to less restrictive licenses with no legal enforcement mechanisms. It's the opposite of freeing code. [1] Malus.sh ; Initially…

Why would you pay for their service when an AI agent can reproduce that for you? If you’re vibecoding SaaS, you’re not going to make it.

Re: Coding agents could make free software matter again

#239

Post by vova_hn2 »

eru wrote: post #168
advael wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Double negative intended for emphasis here, but apologies if it's confusing

Well, most companies never distribute their models. So GPL doesn't kick in.

I think that the claim that they make is that once a model is "contaminated" with GPL code, every output it ever produces should be considered derived from GPL code, therefore GPL-licensed as well.
Post reply on HN