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Stealing? In what way?

Training a generative model on a book is the mechanical equivalent of having a human read the book and learn from it. Is it stealing if a person reads the book and learns from it?



> In what way?

Downloading the book without paying for it, which is more or less what the judge said.


Depends on how closely that person can reproduce the original work without license or attribution


It actually depends on whether or not they reproduce it and especially what they do with the copy after making it.


Sure. I'd say reproducing and distributing it to someone who happens to ask the right questions would qualify


Well, right, but that's different from "can reproduce the original work". I "can" start typing out song lyrics but it doesn't mean that I stole the songs I've listened to.


But a language model is not a person, it’s a copy machine with a blender inside.

Photocopying books in their entirety for commercial use is absolutely illegal.




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