AI and the Destruction of the Creative Commons
The author argues that generative AI threatens the foundational openness of the internet by undermining the creative commons and software copyright equilibrium. They express concern that the current trajectory will lead to a more closed, oligarchical digital landscape.
Why it matters
It raises critical questions about the future of open-source software and the ethical implications of training AI models on public data.
The balance of software copyright protection and openness has always been fraught with minutiae and detail that bores all but the most nerdy of pedants. Yet, through much effort and 40 years of debate we had reached an equilibrium. Now AI has thrown that out the window.
When I was young I remember typing in BASIC programs from magazines into my Commodore 64 and later teaching myself REXX to write games for a BBS I ran. Without these "open" examples, I would never have been empowered to teach myself the basic tenets of programming. This was the era when the issue of whether software could be copyrighted was still being debated.
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