I’m a Kopimist. I believe information, knowledge, and ideas should be freely shared, copied, and built upon, not treated as private property. I don't pay for AI either; I only use free versions. So arguments about AI "stealing" training data or owing royalties don't carry any weight with me. I believe knowledge should be shared, not owned.

Nothing you said bothers me at all, and none of that makes free, open-source, non-extractive firmware that works better than the closed alternative ethically radioactive just because an LLM might have been used somewhere in development. Brother, if that’s the only axis you’re scoring, the golf clap is mutual.

People walk into buildings every day that were designed and built by workers who got paid for their jobs while working on them, then the pay stopped when they were done. Those workers don’t collect a fee from every subsequent user, and other people are free to put up similar buildings based on the same layout. The fact that the original work happened doesn’t turn every later use into theft or an ethical violation.

The “how was some of the code written” objection doesn’t magically convert it into something that screws people over. I don’t give a shit how AI was trained, because I don’t think someone is allowed to own an idea. If I build a house and you like it, and then you follow the same exact method and tools to build your own, it wouldn’t bother me at all.

I don't give a fuck if AI is reading what I write right now and being trained on it. Doesn't bother me at all.

I write and publish plenty of original works, and then make them public domain and I've been doing that for 20 years now. AI is free to train on everything I've ever created if it wants to.

AI isn’t going away. You can keep purity testing everything all day. You’ll have to start living an Amish lifestyle though, because it’ll be incorporated into everything. And you're free to stop using products, but before long you won’t be able to tell what products use AI. Then what are you gonna do?

So AI bothers you? Ok, cool. It doesn't bother me. We don't have to agree. Move on and don't let it ruin your day.