Generative AI is inspiring a lot of discussion around Intellectual Property, namely the lawsuit against Stability AI for training its (open source) model on art from the internet.

Im going to propose a massively unpopular opinion- IP is a charade, and these lawsuits are the beginning of the end of enforceable IP.

These lawsuits cannot stop AI models from learning from what is openly available on the internet, in books, in patents, or in the museum.

What we should be demanding is that any models trained on public data MUST be open sourced and trained weights made available to the public.

Copyright and patents originate from the church controlling the monopoly on the printing press, and monarchs controlling where commerce was allowed (called open letters "patente")

The term 'Intellectual Property' is semantic trickery to make it appear that it has the same inalienable rights as Private Property

The problem with Intellectual Property:

Ideas do not have scarcity. Scarcity of intellectual value is artificially enforced via law.

If you write code, the code you write has probably already been written. If you make art, someone is likely already working in a very similar style, intentionally or not. If you invent, engineer, or design, there is probably already a patent filed for something very similar. Even if this is not currently the case, it is entirely within the capability of another individual to do so in the future.

IP violates free speech and prevents individuals from using their own property in a way that they see fit.

IP laws are what enable predatory corporate practices like high drug prices and lawsuits against farmers saving seeds.

This has been the case ever since patents and copyrights were invented by the church and monarchs, to control publishing and trade.

Economists have found IP to have had zero net effect on innovation.

The majority of important medical advancements (xray, penicillin, DNA structure, birth control, etc.) were created without IP protections, along with most art and software.

Justine Haupt has a great article touching on this, and open source in general.

AI is bringing about an imminent reckoning with these ideas.

When anyone with a single binary file of just a few GB's can reproduce 'proprietary' art, data, ideas, etc., the notion that this can be stopped via legal means is just unrealistic.

This won't destroy capitalism or end demand for art, it will only cause a much needed correction in market dynamics.