deworms (u/deworms) - Readit News

deworms commented on Replit's in-browser coding AI replit.com/site/ghostwrit... · Posted by u/bauerpl

maep · 3 years ago

If this tool was trained on open source code, what license does the generated code have? At least with Codepilot people were able to generate verbatim GPL code with typos and everything. More importantly, I wonder if companies behind these type of tools offer legal or financial protections in case GPL code sneaks in and leads to expensive law suits.

deworms · 3 years ago

No they weren't able to generate the same existing code, both because that code is not included anywhere in the model, and because Copilot (not "Codepilot") has safeguards against this kind of situation, should it arise in the highly unlikely situation that a snippet is repeated thousands of times across thousands of repositories.

I've gotta let you know that people copy code snippets from all sorts of codebases with little regard for licenses anyway, because they're toothless in 99% of cases, AI or not. It's a nice illusion that anyone respects licenses, but it's just not true.

deworms commented on Twitter features Mastodon is better for not having scott.mn/2022/10/29/twitt... · Posted by u/ZacnyLos

valine · 3 years ago

Have to say I wasn’t expecting “antisemitism is fine” as a counter argument to downvotes. Suffice to say this comment isn’t the slam dunk you think it is.

deworms · 3 years ago

Yes it is, and I don't care about how popular my comments are. In many slavic countries antisemitism is the default and normal opinion. Semitic people are not the sacred cows they are in american culture.

deworms commented on Twitter features Mastodon is better for not having scott.mn/2022/10/29/twitt... · Posted by u/ZacnyLos

valine · 3 years ago

Twitter’s problem is that it encourages engagement with the absolute worst and most divisive users. Don’t agree with an antisemitic tweet? Your best option is to leave a reply and ratio the poster.

Twitter desperately needs a public downvote button with a mechanic similar to HN. Flame bait should be pushed to the bottom of everyone’s feed, not the top.

deworms · 3 years ago

You can also just close the tab and stop reading. "Antisemitic" doesn't automatically mean "the devil" either.

deworms commented on GitHub Copilot investigation githubcopilotinvestigatio... · Posted by u/john-doe

lilyball · 3 years ago

And would therefore have to follow the license of the code they took it from. That's exactly the point. Copilot is reproducing the same code but without the license.

deworms · 3 years ago

A simple search on github reveals that those functions were reposted verbatim thousands of times, most people just copy and paste snippets of code they find useful, ignoring licenses. This highlights how all the power a license promises to hold is completely fictional. Any "in the style of Tim Davis" modifier only shows some kind of unwarranted self-importance complex on the part of the guy, thinking his style is widely known and distinctive (it's not). It's not the job of Copilot, the team that builds it, or the programmers that use it, to determine where the functions that were reposted thousands of times under all kinds of licenses originated.

This is the same case as with copyrighted photos in newspapers, a paper prints a photo somebody allowed them to use, but then it turns out that person did not have the right to use it in the first place. Did not stop newspapers from printing photos at all.

Here are the search terms: https://github.com/search?q=cs_transpose&type=Code

deworms commented on GitHub Copilot investigation githubcopilotinvestigatio... · Posted by u/john-doe

Sirened · 3 years ago

You aren't allowed to just read code and regurgitate it in order to claim it as your own. That is, just because you memorized this great new novel you read, it doesn't mean you can go and sit down and hammer it out and sell new copies. People go to great lengths to do this sort of things (see: clean room reverse engineering [1]) in order to try and wash themselves of liability.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design

deworms · 3 years ago

If you think most people pay any attention to licenses or respect them you better think again. Snippets get copied verbatim with no regard to their source all the time. Licenses have no power and are routinely ignored.