@tansy I read your blog post earlier this morning. 💔 😡
I've been working on a post of thoughts:
Tansy's book, "Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion" has been stolen by Meta and Zuckerberg. All of Tansy's effort, creativity, and passion for the book's topic has been misappropriated by a corporation, for that corporation's profit. Not for a grand improvement of the human condition, or the welfare of the planet. But, to steal an author's work to re-package and regurgitate it in a mockery of what took so long for Tansy to write.
"Specifically they (Meta) went to a giant pirated library that exists on the internet and used this library to train their chatbot."
Tansy isn't the only author whose book was purloined. This is a travesty. One that should concern everyone. I'm not here for Chatbot apologists, or whataboutisms trying to justify plagiarizing authors.
Large language model (LLM) isn't artificial intelligence. Artificial, yes, but not intelligent. Anyone who has had the annoying and frustrating experience of trying to solve a customer service issue with a Chatbot knows this. LLMs may well have a use, but that use is not, should not ever be, stealing then copy and pasting the efforts of human wordsmiths.
Oh, the excuses I've seen for justifying what happened to Tansy and other authors who have had their work stolen:
"I wrote it, because I gave the LLM the parameters." No. You didn't write it. You gave the LLM directions for which plagiarized works by others to claim as your own.
"Other people use LLM to write things, why shouldn't I?" The favored cry of those unwilling to accept responsibility for their unsavory actions. Someone else does it, so why shouldn't I do the same thing.
"What's the harm?" Stealing from the actual efforts of others. Diluting and polluting the creativity of writing. Rather than encouraging and nourishing new thought, LLM takes stolen phrases and pastes them together in a hodgepodge of staleness.
I think the important question for self-reflection is do you consider plagiarism acceptable, as long as you profit (monetarily or in some other way) from it.
Again, I'm not here for whataboutisms trying to justify plagiarizing authors.
Tansy, I'm heartbroken for you, and the other authors. I'm also furious that this is an ever increasing problem that does not seem to get the level of anger and pushback it deserves.
