{"id":2800,"date":"2024-03-07T10:36:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T10:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/?p=2800"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:51:16","slug":"fr-ai-nkensteins-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/07\/fr-ai-nkensteins-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr-AI-nkenstein&#8217;s Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2800\" class=\"elementor elementor-2800\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4de3581 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"4de3581\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bd7bd38 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"bd7bd38\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-2811\" alt=\"frankenstein_img\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AI-Frankenstein1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f8ed939 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"f8ed939\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Fr-AI-nkenstein's Monster?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-55859d4 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"55859d4\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-695e136 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"695e136\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h5 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">A Follow Up Article on Last Month's \"A Chink In the AI Dragon's Armour\"<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7d41daf elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7d41daf\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>If anything interesting popped up since last month\u2019s article \u201cA Chink In The AI Dragon\u2019s Armour,\u201d I wanted to follow it up, and luckily a few newsworthy items did! The main thing that caught my eye was that other writers also viewed this particular case as a <em>clear and present danger<\/em> to OpenAI, and maybe even the entire AI business model. There were many articles written that came to similar conclusions, if not the same opinion..<\/p><p>Here are the main issues that most articles highlighted:<\/p><ul><li>The stakes are really high.<\/li><li>The New York Times has a very strong case.<\/li><li>Politically, things don\u2019t look promising for big tech in the eyes of the US Congress.<\/li><\/ul><p>One of the first things was <strong>OpenAI\u2019s response<\/strong>. Their short response is available here through this <a href=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/OpenAI-Rebuttal.pdf\"><em>link.<\/em><\/a><\/p><h3>OpenAI\u2019s Rebuttal<\/h3><p>Frankly, their first volley back was milk toast. Can&#8217;t these Tech Giants hire lethal legal gunslingers? In many of the articles I reviewed, the pundits argued either way on whether OpenAI&#8217;s rebutal scored any points but, in my opinion, they blew a golden opportunity. They could have painted the the New York Times as unreasonable, or greedy, or a stumbling block in the US economy because of their archaic attempts to lock down technology.<\/p><p>At least that\u2019s how I\u2019d frame the other side. There\u2019s nothing worse than reading about two sides in a high stakes courtroom drama and one of them whines like a school kid, \u201cWasn\u2019t me! He did it first!\u201d Okay so, let\u2019s quickly go through the four points of their rebuttal:<\/p><h4>Number One \u201cWe collaborate with news organizations and are creating new opportunities\u201d<\/h4><p>What\u2019s this got to do with answering that blistering barrage of counts in The New York Time\u2019s complaint? They&#8217;re accused of stealing the NYT&#8217;s property and making a killing on the market, at the plaintiff&#8217;s expense. OpenAI&#8217;s response basically reads, \u201cWell normally we\u2019re really nice guys and get along with everybody, creating win-win situations!\u201d Yeah, except when you Hoover up all their copyright protected property and make billions off it. Where\u2019s the win-win in that pal?<\/p><h4>Number Two \u201cTraining is fair use, but we provide an opt-out because it\u2019s the right thing to do\u201d<\/h4><p>Let\u2019s unpack this. There are two points they make and first is, \u2018<em>Training is fair use<\/em>.\u2019 Really? Is that what you\u2019re going to hang your hat on? Training LLM models is fairly new and that point has not been established as court precedent, yet. This is one of the main reasons the NYT is taking you to court. I highly doubt that they\u2019d have much of a case if what OpenAI is positing was correct.<\/p><p>The next point is that they provide an <a href=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ChatGPT-Opt-Out.pdf\">\u201copt-out\u201d<\/a> because it\u2019s the right thing to-do. I have provided a copy of this opt-out for your review if you care to see it. Everyone\u2019s got that little \u201c<em>Accept<\/em>\u201d license agreement when they have to update software. Sure, I can <em>opt-out<\/em> of agreeing to it but my ability to continue working afterwards is nil &#8211; they\u2019ll shut it off.<\/p><p>At least in the above hypothetic scenario, the licensee has some sort of willing relationship with the Tech company. In OpenAI\u2019s scenario, they\u2019re saying, \u201cHey World! We\u2019re going to steal anything we can get our hands on but here\u2019s a talisman to ward off our wanton theft! An \u2018opt-out\u2019 code that alerts us that you\u2019re not cool with our copyright infringement. If you don\u2019t opt-opt, we\u2019ll assume it\u2019s okily-dokily! Have a super day!\u201d<\/p><p>I can\u2019t help but get incensed by the daily onslaughts of scammers trying to call, text, email me with their attempts to steal my data for whatever their nefarious ends. My response is always to write, \u201cPiss off!\u201d OpenAI are no better than the daily torrent of common eHucksters. It\u2019s about time someone with authority gives these Tech Giants a giant dope slap upside their extra large craniums. An \u2018opt-out\u2019 is not a clever defence to stealing someone\u2019s property.<\/p><h4>Number Three \u201c\u201cRegurgitation\u201d is a rare bug that we are working to drive to zero\u201d<\/h4><p>Just because someone can trick a supposedly smart algorithm into infringing on another\u2019s copyrighted material doesn\u2019t make the infringement any less egregious. I\u2019m really not sure how this so-called rebuttal point helps their case.<\/p><p>Who wrote this? Was OpenAI\u2019s legal team able to review it before it was posted? Maybe they should consider new counsel or at least find a street savvy PR or Ad firm to give this the desired spin they should be aiming at. Hey guys! Give me a try! The results couldn\u2019t be any worse and I charge way less.<\/p><p>What this does is confirm that the New York Time\u2019s IP is stored somewhere or somehow in this GenAI\u2019s virtual brain because <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">it\u2019s regurgitating it verbatim<\/span>. What part of this sentence are you brainiacs not understanding? This is exactly the legal noose those sharp NYT legal eagles are fitting around your little necks. I wouldn\u2019t be admitting anything at this stage. Again, the offer\u2019s open if you want me to write the next rebuttal. And tell you what, because it\u2019s the right thing to do, I\u2019ll even through in some nifty opt-out code.<\/p><p>The facts are that, in order to train these LLM\u2019s, these Tech Giants have no choice but to use copyrighted material. Fact two; text from a newspaper like the NYT is fact-checked, fairly dependable, are published regularly, have quality writing, and there\u2019s lots of it all in one place, making it easily accessible to operators like OpenAI.<\/p><p>It will be up to a jury and judge to decide whether this training amounts to a \u2018transformative purpose\u2019 but regurgitating IP verbatim is the exact opposite of transformative, except if what they mean that is OpenAI transforming the NYT\u2019s profits into their own bank account.<\/p><h4>Number Four \u201cThe New York Times is not telling the full story\u201d<\/h4><p>Oh boo-hoo! Out of the four paragraphs, this is the whiniest of all. Really, the New York Time\u2019s lawyers didn\u2019t paint a flattering picture of OpenAI in their legal complaint? Eegads! The very idea!<\/p><p>Again, I\u2019m bewildered that this ever made to the public eye. Here\u2019s a free tip for OpenAI, don\u2019t frame it like that. You got to paint a story with the rebuttal point such as, \u2018<em>Here\u2019s the stuff the New York Times is hiding from you<\/em>!\u2019 You\u2019re welcome.<\/p><p>When you think about it, the New York Times does have the advantage in this communication war. They write amazing copy and stinging editorials on a regular basis, for over a century. They do it well and from their rebuttal, it looks like OpenAI has a steep learning curve.<\/p><p>Hey lads, I have another free suggestion, The next time you post a press release, why not run it through ChatGPT, prompting it to make sound like a New York Times rebuttal? Hmmm? Make sense?<\/p><p>OpenAI continued, \u201cWe had explained to The New York Times that, like any single source, their content didn&#8217;t meaningfully contribute to the training of our existing models and also wouldn&#8217;t be sufficiently impactful for future training.\u201d<\/p><p>Number one, they admitted having possession of the New York Time\u2019s content. That&#8217;s one of the elements a plaintiff needs to prove in an infringement case. Whether this content was meaningful or not to the training is a red-herring. <strong>What<\/strong> were you doing with the New York Time\u2019s property in the first place? <strong>Who<\/strong> gave you permission? <strong>How<\/strong> was this information processed? All these, &#8216;How, What, and Who\u2019s&#8217; are the types of questions juries answer. If you can help it, you don&#8217;t want to be going in front of jury.<\/p><p>So, if it wasn\u2019t meaningful, ChatGPT sure regurgitated a lot of it! Going to trial is always a gamble, and an expensive one. But it appears that OpenAI is willing to bet all their chips on black and let it roll baby. To me it says a lot about their lack of judgment, or hubris, or greed. If I had substantial amount of stock in the defendants\u2019 companies, I\u2019d be looking for a possible exit if everything goes south for them.<\/p><p>I\u2019ll close this article here. There\u2019s a lot more I\u2019d like to go over so, I\u2019ll see if I can post more commentary over the next couple of weeks. Some of the topics I\u2019d like to touch upon are:<\/p><ol><li>Publishers\u2019 Past Lessons Learned &#8211; Napster, Google, and Sony Beta-Max, oh my!<\/li><li>OpenAI\u2019s Cooperation and Deals with Other Publishers &#8211; They Can Play Nice When They Want To.<\/li><li>Plaintiff\u2019s Discovery Weapons &#8211; Shucking That Stubborn AI Clam.<\/li><li>The Fair Use Doctrine Examined &#8211; Discussing If OpenAI\u2019s Shield Is Really A Sword.<\/li><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-302e78c e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"302e78c\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-462cc43 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"462cc43\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1517 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Caricature-02-400x400-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"175\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Caricature-02-400x400-1.png 400w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Caricature-02-400x400-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Caricature-02-400x400-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/parrottcliff.com\">Parrott.Cliff<\/a> is the website and source for blog articles for the award winning animator, writer, director and producer, Clifford Parrott. He resides on Ireland&#8217;s west coast where he tries to surf as much as possible, and also help run Magpie 6 Media with his wife Christina, in that order.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times v ChatGPT, Microsoft<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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