I’m voting for the no-leprechauns party! They really know how to get things done.

You can’t just be spouting off crazy shit like this online and not citing your sources!

What?

That’s not how any IPO works.

Well yes, I’m not saying it’s a free lunch. The point is a large up-front investment buys you unlimited tokens in perpetuity for no more than the cost of electricity to power the cluster — which can be surprisingly cheap for UMA machines.

I’ve swapped off API models entirely and have been able to do a lot more useful work since I don’t have to worry about token cost or usage limits. Granted it’s slower per task (less tk/s), but overall much more productive, and private.

Perhaps they run a local model, then tokens are essentially free.

And we’ve finally come to the point I was trying to make from the beginning. In this particular case it’s Copyright law that is bad.

For example. I have a collection of physical cookbooks that I am in the process of digitizing because I would like to have them in my self hosted Mealie server, and many of them are old and delicate so this is the only way to protect their contents.

Many of these books are rare, no longer in print, and have no digital editions. Now I have a bit more leeway in my case because the recipes themselves are not subject to copyright (only the compilation), but still the only fully legal way for me to digitize these books is to destroy them after I’ve scanned them.

This is a problem with copyright and the commercialization of knowledge in general, not something that is specific to Anthropic or any AI company. So the point is, if you want to rage out at something, make sure your ire is targeted in the correct direction.

In this case that direction should be towards reforming copyright law, and establishing broader adaptation of the copyleft philosophy (which I very much support).

And just to clarify, yes Anthropic destroying a bunch of books is less than ideal, and you can argue that the reason they want them in the first place is dumb or evil as well, but the actual act of destruction is being compelled by US law and applies to anyone in any similar situation.

Well, it’s somewhat related as it would seem that when it comes to US copyright law, making a digital copy of a book is a violation of the author’s rights unless you destroy the book after making the scan. Even then it’s still on shaky ground as it depends on what you then go and do with that digital file.

It only seems right that when you choose to cheat these hard working human authors out of their due by stealing their intellectual work, you should do so with full knowledge of its illegality.

Thanks. I appreciate you spending the time to provide me with a link. However after a close reading of the page you provided, Copyright, Fair Use, and Plagiarism for Students: “Fair Use” of Copyrighted Materials, I’ve come to the conclusion that what you have described, whether for educational purposes or otherwise, does not constitute fair use.

Generally, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work (Richard Stim, Stanford University Libraries).

This is news to me. Do you have any legal sources you can point me towards? I would love to maintain my own digital library of nondestructively scanned books without needing to buy them or pay any of the copyright holders.

I’m assuming there would probably still be some copyright issues. I don’t think it’s okay to just go into a library and steal books by copying them even if they aren’t destroyed right?

Exactly! Like individualized and infinitely patient always available personal tutors. Oh, wait…

I don’t think I could do that at the library. Wouldn’t I need to purchase the books first?

Can you explain what happens to them?

It looks like you accidentally misspelled “using” as “burning.”

Removed by mod

You seem reasonable and even-tempered, so I’d like to give you a considered response so I can hear your thoughts. But first I wanna ask:

Do you object to the technology as a whole, or only to the use of the moniker AI to described LLMs?

What is your definition of intelligence?

I love the appropriate application of Kant!

But I think the point about bad faith misses the mark. For one to conduct themselves or argue for a position in bad faith (even against only themselves), they must first hold a true, hidden belief. I don’t think that’s typically the case here.

You could argue that there is a hidden belief and that it is something like “AI is bad” or “I don’t like AI.” However, the people arguing this position are often quick to point out themselves that AI has legitimate value, even if they then go on to narrowly define the character and application of that value.

I would argue instead that what is actually being hidden here isn’t a belief, but is instead a sentiment something like, “I’m scared.” Which, while being completely understandable, is an emotive state or pseudo-belief, not a truly-held but hidden belief. Because of that, they (in the general sense) aren’t calculating hypocrites; they’re are just panicking.

Although, I prefer the admittedly archaic flatus vocis for describing this particular brand of cognitive dissonance because it translates basically to “mouth farts,” and that makes me chuckle.

1. With greedy decoding (temperature set to 0) LLM output is deterministic. The same input will always result in the same output — every time. This is a fact.
2. Just because something isn’t amenable to calculation does not mean it is nondeterministic, for example the Three Body Problem. This is a fact.
3. Humans are stupid unpredictable base animals that hold almost no understanding of the world around them or their place within it, while at the same time their heard-level behaviors are almost, if not entirely, predictable. This is a cynical joke.

so there is a field of ai. … even partial steps have wide reaching applications and philosophical implications. it is the absolute coolest shit, and gets exactly 0 funding these days.

the thing all the data centers RAM water electricity and economy are backing right now is not ai. it’s what happens when a magic trick and a ponzi scheme fuck on a pile of cocaine in a Pharaoh’s tomb.

These two positions seem to be mutually exclusive, and your response is, on the whole, incoherent. Could you please explain what it is you are trying to communicate?