Live data from Hacker News

All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

twitter.com

11–20 of 734 posts

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#11
post #8

Really hoping to see a max exodus from GitHub after this. Microsoft back to their old tactics like we all knew they would.

If you have public repos anywhere people can train on them just as much.

That's also my general sentiment. I assume anyone can do virtually anything with my public repos with little recourse from me. I wouldn't even know if they are indeed breaking my license agreements. Doesn't really help the situation though.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#12
At least to some first approximation irrelevant because reading code is not subject to any license. What if a human reads some restrictively licensed code and years later uses some idea he noticed in that code, maybe even no longer being aware from where this idea comes?

But what if the system memorizes entire functions? What if a human does so? What if you change all the variable names? What if you rearrange the control flow a bit? What if you just change the spacing? What if two humans write the exact same code independently? Is every for loop with i from 0 to n a license violation?

I am not picking any side, but the problem is certainly much more nuanced then either side of the argument wants to paint it.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#13
Out of curiosity, how do we define license violation in that case? I, as a human being, have trained by reading code, much of which is covered by licenses that are somehow not compatible with code I'm writing. Am I violating licenses?

Asking seriously. It's really unclear to me where law and/or ethics put the boundaries. Also, I'd guess it's probably country dependent.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#14

Really hoping to see a max exodus from GitHub after this. Microsoft back to their old tactics like we all knew they would.

Any suggestions for an alternative? One thing I like about github is that it 'seems' to be a defacto standard for portfolios & public works. It also has excellent integration into AWS and alike

GitLab is the best alternative feature wise. https://sourcehut.org/ is great too if you are into this kind of things

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#15
I don’t know how to approach this. As a human I can read all public code and learn from regardless the license and come up with new solutions. Machine can read everything too, but can't create new ideas or approach. How is copilot defined then? Should it be only smart system for general code snippets?

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#16
post #13

Out of curiosity, how do we define license violation in that case? I, as a human being, have trained by reading code, much of which is covered by licenses that are somehow not compatible with code I'm writing. Am I violating licenses? Asking seriously. It's really unclear to me where law and/or ethics put the boundaries. Also, I'd guess it's probably country dependent.

I am not a lawyer but I am sure that any legal standard for ML has to be different than "isn't it just doing what humans do, but faster?"

GitHub scanning billions of code files to build commercial software is different than you learning at human pace, even if they're both "learning" and in the end they both produce commercial software.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#17
post #16
post #13

Out of curiosity, how do we define license violation in that case? I, as a human being, have trained by reading code, much of which is covered by licenses that are somehow not compatible with code I'm writing. Am I violating licenses? Asking seriously. It's really unclear to me where law and/or ethics put the boundaries. Also, I'd guess it's probably country dependent.

I am not a lawyer but I am sure that any legal standard for ML has to be different than "isn't it just doing what humans do, but faster?" GitHub scanning billions of code files to build commercial software is different than you learning at human pace, even if they're both "learning" and in the end they both produce commercial software.

It does not have to be different but it certainly can be different, a difference in quantity can certainly be a difference in quality. People watching other people walk by and a camera - maybe with face detection - doing the same are not only a difference in quantity but also in quality.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#18
post #13

Out of curiosity, how do we define license violation in that case? I, as a human being, have trained by reading code, much of which is covered by licenses that are somehow not compatible with code I'm writing. Am I violating licenses? Asking seriously. It's really unclear to me where law and/or ethics put the boundaries. Also, I'd guess it's probably country dependent.

The training question seems much more difficult.

The main problem that has been the topic is a simpler one - about the produced work. If you exactly reproduce someone's existing code (doesn't matter if you copy by flipping bits one by one or which technology you use), isn't it a copyright violation?

I'm kind of imagining a Rube Goldberg machine that spells out the quake invsqrt function in the sand, now...

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#19
post #2

A direct confirmation from GitHub itself. This is problematic because Copilot sometimes outputs code that was present in its training set. https://fossbytes.com/github-copilot-generating-functional-a...

This is the crux of copilot. When I saw it copying RSA keys I knew, it's overtrained.

Most of the comments are waxing about philosophical possibilities of copilot copying GPL.

Reality is clear in the case, it's copy pasting thousands of characters of GPL code with no modifications. Copyright violation clear as day

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#20
post #3

The outrage-bait approach in this thread detracts from it. Yes, they trained it on everything. No, it's not clear if that's legal or not (probably is) or if that is much of a problem.

Indeed; the question is if copyright should apply at all. Harping on about licenses, GPL, and whatnot is a detraction from the actual issue at hand.

Also, given that the author of this tweet called me a "bootlicker" last year in response to a somewhat lengthy nuanced post about GitHub, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they're not all that interested in a meaningful conversation on this in the first place but are rather on a quest to "prove" GitHub is evil.

Post reply on HN