The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by book authors whose works were used without permission to train its chatbot. The company will compensate authors or publishers approximately $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books included in the settlement. However, Anthropic will be allowed to continue operating and retain the benefits derived from the unauthorized use of the books.
Steal, Pay, Leave
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Ever see “Forbidden Planet”? In the end, the horrible twist is revealed: by building a machine with no instrumentality and thus no off switch, the Krell doom themselves to the dark monsters of their ids. The tech crowd talks of the “singularity.” The point at which technological growth gets out of human control.
Most people who write for a living — brace for it — do it to make a living. And they’re pretty good at it. Replace them with machines? Fine. So let’s recap: Healthcare CEO killed for helping to deny coverage to sick people. Loudmouth social media type gunned down by someone who disagrees with his brand of deception and invective hiding behind the skirts of “free expression”? Coming up next, some Silicon Valley tech type murdered by … well, take your pick: will it be an out-of-work editor? Maybe a journalist who just got a diagnosis of cancer (probably from the stress of hanging on to his career for the past 30 years while the entire industry was forcefed through a slaughter chute called “right sizing”)? Perhaps some 25-year-old aspiring author who can’t even get a manuscript looked at?
The system is entering the end phase where the 1%’s 1% is hoovering up the last crumbs. The middle class is shrinking fast. We’ve economized to an extent that would shock and sicken our ancestors. “What do you mean you didn’t take a two-week vacation this year? You stayed home? You didn’t take your kids to see the Grand Ca— You don’t HAVE kids? Whaddayamean you couldn’t afford them?”
In the future creative works that can be traced as 100% human sourced will be considered premium works. In this same future people like Ted Rall will have to pray UBI becomes a thing
Yes, the science fiction authors promised that these artificial intelligences, robots, etc. would mean a life of mostly leisure for humanity. Instead, this is benefiting only those who own the intellectual property for the AIs and robots, not those who are losing their jobs to them. So a universal basic income it has to be to right this ship!