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If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#201

Post by random3 »

kepano wrote: post #12

I've been saying this since 2023 > If your data is stored in a database that a company can freely read and access (i.e. not end-to-end encrypted), the company will eventually update their ToS so they can use your data for AI training — the incentives are too strong to resist https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37124188

The “do it first, apologize later” will be the general principle with anything. It’s going to be hard and futile to prove even if they don’t do it through ToS first. Amazon has one of the largest corporate training sets out there:)

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#202

Post by pyjarrett »

kristianp wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative for free private repos?

It doesn't take much power or time to run your own local git server. My first one which lasted years was parts I mangled together from old computers from garage sales.

There's instructions on running a Git server in the git book: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-on-the-Server-The-Protoco...

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#203

Post by [deleted] »

homebrewer wrote: post #83
martinwoodward wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn’t previously opt-in. Previously we didn’t do any training on usage. However as other products have come into the market they do train on usage. We’ve been training on our internal usage for just over a year and have seen some major improvements. For details see of the types of improvements we’ve seen from training on our internal usage check out this article: https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/cop…

You can always ask your parent company to train on their usage. I hear they have incredibly massive codebases: Windows, Office, MSSQL, which stay out of training data for some reason. I thought neural nets never repeat the training data verbatim, and copyright does not pass through them, so what's the problem?

[deleted]

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#204

Post by malfist »

tedivm wrote: post #20
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #2

RIP all the people who have been paying Github for years and never happen to see the notice.

I think opt out is stupid, but the notice is on every page of github using their banner display right now. They've also blasted out emails.

And how many people who use git on github go to the website? I only do when my token has expired and I need to grab a new one to push again. Which is every 90 days. Github.com is mostly invisible infrastructure to me.

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#206

Post by [deleted] »

martinwoodward wrote: post #57
lanxevo3 wrote: post #9

[flagged]

It wasn’t previously opt-in. Previously we didn’t do any training on usage. However as other products have come into the market they do train on usage. We’ve been training on our internal usage for just over a year and have seen some major improvements. For details see of the types of improvements we’ve seen from training on our internal usage check out this article: https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/cop…

[deleted]

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#207

Post by JonChesterfield »

Don't give your code to Microsoft if you don't want them to have your code.

This setting will make no difference to whether your code is fed into their training set. "Oops we accidentally ignored the private flag years ago and didn't realise, we are very sorry, we were trying to not do that".

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#208

Post by nottorp »

lkbm wrote: post #160
nottorp wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that help if you don't go to the github site but just use git from the command line?

They also sent an email.

Did they? Not to me, and I have a 'review this new sign in' from 4 days ago so them emailing me works.

Re: If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

#210

Post by GMoromisato »

I'm sure this is just me, but I don't mind if AI trains on my public or private repos. I suspect my imagination is just not good enough to come up with downsides.

So far it's been a benefit because coding agents seems to understand my code and can follow my style.

I don't store client data (much less credentials) in my repos (public or private) so I'm not worried about data leaks. And I don't expect any of my clients to decide to replace me and vibe code their way to a solution.

I do worry (slightly) about large company competitors using AI to lower their prices and compete with me, but that's going to happen regardless of whether anyone trains on my code. And my own increases in efficiency due to AI have made up for that.

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