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(==== AI and how to think about it ==== '''Theme/Topic''': How do we decide how to judge AI in terms of software freedom? '''Organizer(s)''': Ciarán O'Riordan '''Description''': For people to be treated well in a society which includes software, there) |
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+ | ==== AI and how to think about it ==== | ||
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+ | '''Theme/Topic''': How do we decide how to judge AI in terms of software freedom? | ||
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+ | '''Organizer(s)''': Ciarán O'Riordan | ||
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+ | '''Description''': For people to be treated well in a society which includes software, there are four essential freedoms that software must come with. But an AI system is different to a software system in that the source code is only a tiny part of the system. If we simply check the software part for the four freedoms, we might conclude that an AI system comes with the essential freedoms, but we would not get the benefits that we expect from society having the four freedoms. A second option would be that we apply the four freedoms test to the entire AI system (software + data). Most AI systems today would fail that test, the same way most software systems failed the four freedoms text back in the 1980s. Writing free software to replace non-free software was a huge task, but it was possible, and we have made a lot of progress on this. However, replacing non-free AI training data with free AI training data may be so difficult that it's impossible. One example is large language models. Data scraped from a million websites by professional writers might currently be the input for a medium-quality large language model. There's no way we can create a parallel internet with a similar corpus of a million websites by professional writers. A second example is medical systems. If the necessary training data includes personal or sensitive data, we might find it is impossible to accumulate a sufficient amount of freely-distributable, freely-modifiable medical data. (In both cases, creating ''an'' AI system would be possible, either using public domain texts from 100 years ago or using a limited archive of old or theoretical medical data, but neither would suffice to produce a medium-quality AI system for either task.) | ||
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+ | '''Notes''': So, anyone who agrees that the above issue is a problem, let's meet up and discuss it. (If you think the above is not an issue, maybe that can be discussed in a BoF about whether AI exists or whether AI systems are different to software systems. Those are great questions and I'd probably join those BoFs if someone proposes such.) | ||
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+ | '''Attendees''': | ||
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+ | '''Location TBC''' | ||
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{{featured resource|month=December|year=2023}} | {{featured resource|month=December|year=2023}} |
Revision as of 04:23, 5 March 2024
Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions for LP2024
Interested in putting together a BoF? Other plans or ideas for a social event? This is your place to do all that and more!
Birds of a Feather sessions are a time for people to get together around a specific topic or identity, either to focus on conversations, come up with new ideas, or just spend time socializing.
Use the following information to describe your BoF. Anyone can sign up to the event by adding their name to the attendee's list. We encourage you to try by yourself to add your session below, but if you run into any trouble feel free to email campaigns@fsf.org and we'll post it on the site and help direct people to your event!
Contents
Template
Title
Theme/Topic
Organizer(s)
Description
Notes
Attendees
Location TBC
2024 Proposals
Free Software Fun
Theme/Topic Free software games
Organizer(s) Zachary Sarver
Description Let's play and discuss some free software games together! The world of free software has plenty of fun on offer and interesting topics to discuss. We can discuss the topic of originality (or, what are the best games that aren't clones?), how to push free software forward, and the numerous free software engine reimplementations. Bring your favorite device, and maybe we can get in a few games of glDoom or Wesnoth.
Notes
Attendees
Location TBC
AI and how to think about it
Theme/Topic: How do we decide how to judge AI in terms of software freedom?
Organizer(s): Ciarán O'Riordan
Description: For people to be treated well in a society which includes software, there are four essential freedoms that software must come with. But an AI system is different to a software system in that the source code is only a tiny part of the system. If we simply check the software part for the four freedoms, we might conclude that an AI system comes with the essential freedoms, but we would not get the benefits that we expect from society having the four freedoms. A second option would be that we apply the four freedoms test to the entire AI system (software + data). Most AI systems today would fail that test, the same way most software systems failed the four freedoms text back in the 1980s. Writing free software to replace non-free software was a huge task, but it was possible, and we have made a lot of progress on this. However, replacing non-free AI training data with free AI training data may be so difficult that it's impossible. One example is large language models. Data scraped from a million websites by professional writers might currently be the input for a medium-quality large language model. There's no way we can create a parallel internet with a similar corpus of a million websites by professional writers. A second example is medical systems. If the necessary training data includes personal or sensitive data, we might find it is impossible to accumulate a sufficient amount of freely-distributable, freely-modifiable medical data. (In both cases, creating an AI system would be possible, either using public domain texts from 100 years ago or using a limited archive of old or theoretical medical data, but neither would suffice to produce a medium-quality AI system for either task.)
Notes: So, anyone who agrees that the above issue is a problem, let's meet up and discuss it. (If you think the above is not an issue, maybe that can be discussed in a BoF about whether AI exists or whether AI systems are different to software systems. Those are great questions and I'd probably join those BoFs if someone proposes such.)
Attendees:
Location TBC
This page was a featured resource in December 2023.