Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data • Hacker News Board

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#51

Post by bilbo0s » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:10 PM UTC

sylware wrote: post #28

I wonder when one of the richest corps will manage to get exclusive access to such data and lock out the others.

Never.

Because no one will sell them an exclusive license to the data.

The companies selling this data are slimy. They're borderline crimelords. Picture a pirate captain with a hostage that he is ransoming. Now imagine he gets his ransom, but before he releases the hostage he makes a copy of her. Then ransoms the copy to another interested party. But before he releases the copy, he makes another copy and... you get the idea.

It's pirate thinking.

"If one hostage is good? Then two are better! And three? Well, that's just good business!!!" -Hondo Ohnaka

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#52

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:14 PM UTC

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #12

layer8 wrote: post #6

This will be a fun reminiscence once we find out how humans are able to learn with just a tiny fraction of that data volume.

Despite all the hoopla around AGI, the sheer amount of data required really makes human learning all the more impressive. Gödel probably consumed a miniscule fraction of what these systems have seen. And look what he came up with!

[deleted]

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#53

Post by bilbo0s » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:16 PM UTC

Shrezzing wrote: post #18

>in talks with multiple tech companies to license Photobucket's 13 billion photos and videos >Photobucket declined to identify its prospective buyers, citing commercial confidentiality. >tech companies are also quietly paying for content locked behind paywalls and login screens, giving rise to a hidden trade in everything from chat logs to long forgotten personal photos from faded social media apps In this market, et…

It's immediately and self-evidently obvious that no end-user in 2007 consented to photos of their 2007 era teenage self being used to train an AI how to identify an emo kid

Unfortunately, they did actually. It's more accurate to say that they were presented a EULA and Terms of Service that no reasonable teenager would have had any hope of understanding. But since they're over 13, they're held to the terms of those agreements in any case.

These companies are slimy. Make no mistake, this will get worse in the future.

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#54

Post by itronitron » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:16 PM UTC

Centigonal wrote: post #27

Shrezzing wrote: post #18

>in talks with multiple tech companies to license Photobucket's 13 billion photos and videos >Photobucket declined to identify its prospective buyers, citing commercial confidentiality. >tech companies are also quietly paying for content locked behind paywalls and login screens, giving rise to a hidden trade in everything from chat logs to long forgotten personal photos from faded social media apps In this market, et…

Photobucket is a morally bankrupt shell of its former self. They send constant emails with extremely urgent subject lines threatening to delete your photos unless you sign up for a $5/mo plan. They do this even if your account doesn't contain any photos .

This is funny. If they delete your photos then they lose their lever for getting you into a payment plan. Except they'll probably email you a recurring one-time offer to restore your 'deleted' photos for a nominal fee.

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#55

Post by qeternity » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:17 PM UTC

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #34

dnissley wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the end result is ai chat agents that anyone in the world can access for free, that seems like an absolutely wonderful thing

We can be forgiven for not having foreseen how social media would be used against us, connecting the world sounded like a cool idea on the surface. But having gone through that there's no excuse to be naive and simplistic about AI.

What harm has been inflicted upon you directly as a result?

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#56

Post by cdme » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:17 PM UTC

All the more reason for comprehensive privacy/data protection legislation and a refusal to provide data to these companies wherever possible.

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#57

Post by digging » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

WithinReason wrote: post #25

paxys wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think that will be the end result?

It's already the case, there are free models that were trained on this data

What's publicly and easily available for free is not good, so we're stealing labor and replacing it with worse labor.

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#58

Post by qeternity » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:19 PM UTC

bilbo0s wrote: post #53

Shrezzing wrote: post #18

>in talks with multiple tech companies to license Photobucket's 13 billion photos and videos >Photobucket declined to identify its prospective buyers, citing commercial confidentiality. >tech companies are also quietly paying for content locked behind paywalls and login screens, giving rise to a hidden trade in everything from chat logs to long forgotten personal photos from faded social media apps In this market, et…

It's immediately and self-evidently obvious that no end-user in 2007 consented to photos of their 2007 era teenage self being used to train an AI how to identify an emo kid Unfortunately, they did actually. It's more accurate to say that they were presented a EULA and Terms of Service that no reasonable teenager would have had any hope of understanding. But since they're over 13, they're held to the terms of those ag…

People have known for eons that companies were using their data. TikTok is well publicized to be the CCP. And yet millions of people would rather have entertainment. There are plenty (myself included) who abstain, but the reality is the vast majority of people, if presented with free and unlimited dopamine hits, will gladly give away their info.

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#59

Post by Shawnj2 » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:20 PM UTC

cdme wrote: post #56

All the more reason for comprehensive privacy/data protection legislation and a refusal to provide data to these companies wherever possible.

The fact that ChatGPT isn’t deemed copyright infringement is absurd. Like you can’t take the entire internet and use it to train your software and claim you’re not violating the copyright of thousands of people

Re: Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

#60

Post by bilsbie » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 5:22 PM UTC

I wonder if they’ve considered hiring people to write. A lot of people might do it for cheap just to have their imprint on AI.

Or another twist pay people to submit ten years of emails (upload the backup file) or just pay small amounts for works they’ve made. College essays, journals, etc.