OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

AI companies have all kinds of arguments against paying for copyrighted content
Wes Davis, The Verge, 2023/11/08

---

One of my key arguments for the ethics of open access is based on the idea that humans don't get their ideas from nothingness, and that they're in fact based on a wide range of sources that teach them everything from the language they're writing to the concepts they using to the background for the idea itself. I make that argument here. A very similar argument is now being made by technology companies who want to be able to use all the content that's out there to train their AIs. And I agree with that part of the argument. What the AI does is really no different from what we do when we read and watch all that stuff through our lifetime to earn an education. Where we come into conflict is when these same AI companies want to commercialize and copyright the output. And here I agree with the courts that have said AI-generated content should not be copyrightable. There may be something original in there, but it is such a small fraction of the overall output that slapping a copyright on that output is essentially theft from the commons from which this output was originally derived. But that means that people opposing copyright for AI-generated content can't be copyright maximalists.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

With Postmarks, social bookmarking is back -- but this time it's built on the fediverse | TechCrunch
Connie Loizos, TechCrunch, 2023/11/08

---

I actually sent out a post the other day looking for something like this. It would be nice to have a fediverse version of a common bookmarking tool. But the drawback to this one (to my mind) is that it is hosted on Glitch, which is essentially a web hosting platform. In theory, Postmarks can be run on your own Node website, but the documentation here is minimal (saying, and I quote, "run npm run start via whatever mechanism you choose to use to host this website"). Maybe I could figure it out, but with development so biased toward a specific commercial platform, the software feels too risky to me.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Google Promises Its Christmas Game Doesn't Use Kids to Train AI
Thomas Germain, Gizmodo, 2023/11/08

---

According to this article, "A Santa-themed game from Google's workshop said kids' data would shape AI. The company insists that's not actually happening and it will add updates." The game has players draw pictures on a whiteboard while a bot named 'Tensor' tries to guess what they are. As Tara Calishain says, "When your reputation is so dented  you can't make a joke on your Christmas-themed kid's site without people giving you endless side-eye."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

CC Responds to the United States Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Creative Commons, 2023/11/08

---

Creative Commons can be relied upon to take a generally pro-ownership and libertarian stance regarding rules and regulation, and its reponse to questions from the US Copyright Office are no exception. Quoted:

• AI training generally constitutes fair use
• Copyright should protect AI outputs with significant human creative input
• The substantial standard similarity should apply to Infringement by AI outputs
• Creators should be able to express their preferences
• Copyright cannot solve everything related to generative AI

 

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed