• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    3 days ago

    TBF an LLM could have written the remaining books by now and it’d still be better than how the show ended up.

    • khepri@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      If his legacy is securing some kind of AI rights for artists I’d prefer that honestly. That book is at this point the Star Citizen of books. Even if it ever somehow comes out, the insane amount of time and hype surrounding it absolutely guarantee disappointment.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        He doesnt know how to finish it because he planned nothing. Its a tangled mess of plot strands that he has no idea what to do with. Hes, in my opinion, an extremely lazy idiot who got very lucky or knew the right people.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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      Just give up on the book. Even if he gets the Winds of Winter done, the rest will never follow. He seems to have found himself unable to focus on it. I imagine that between the backlash to the shows end, the attention and intense pressure that was put on him, and the constant complaints by shitty fans (cough) acting like they are entitled to his work and reminding him he’s going to die before finishing it if he doesn’t hurry up… I can’t imagine any of that makes him feel like working on it. He clearly loves the world and needs the creative outlet, which is why he keeps popping out novella after novella set in Westeros that no one asked for. But the fact that he’s not working on WoW feels like it just doesnt make him feel good to work on it anymore. And I cant fault the guy for not powering through like it is a book report due in the morning.

        • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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          Jesus chill the fuck out. A) “Work ethic”. He’s a creative writer, not a district manager. B) He’s fucking 77 years old. C) He has written DOZENS of books over his career, and screenplays as well D) He’s not your fucking employee for you to yell at during his biannual performance review. Show me your bookshelf full of novels you have written and the awards you got for writing them, and then open your mouth. Otherwise, shut the fuck up, whiner.

          • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            Thats true! Thats also why I’m not suing him for defrauding me as an employer, I’m just shit-talking him on lemmy.

    • chetradley@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I’m actually ok with him taking the time to sue the fuck out of Open AI. But let’s be real here, I’ve given up any hope of the books being finished anyway.

  • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    Go get em!

    If the authors win, we win. Either these companies will have to start over from near scratch, or those authors are gonna be riiiiich

  • Sylra@lemmy.cafe
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    3 days ago

    So, this is what I understood so far:

    • A group of authors, including George R.R. Martin, sued OpenAI in 2023. They said the company used their books without permission to train ChatGPT and that the AI can produce content too similar to their original work.

    • In October 2025, a judge ruled the lawsuit can move forward. This came after ChatGPT generated a detailed fake sequel to one of Martin’s books, complete with characters and world elements closely tied to his universe. The judge said a jury could see this as copyright infringement.

    • The court has not yet decided whether OpenAI’s use counts as fair use. That remains a key legal question.

    • This case is part of a bigger debate over whether AI companies can train on copyrighted books without asking or paying. In a similar case against Anthropic, a court once suggested AI training might be fair use, but the company still paid $1.5 billion to settle.

    • No final decision has been made here, and no trial date has been set.

    • khepri@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Just forget for a second that this has anything to do with AI specifically: I wonder how it could possibly fall under fair use to grind up hundreds of thousands of pieces of copyrighted content, and then use that data to create software that you then profit from.

      The question, as I see it, is if simply mashing all this intellectual property together – and deriving a series of weights for an AI model from that – somehow makes it not theft simply because all the content is smashed into one big pile of pink goo in which no single piece of content is recognizable.

      • fodor@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        … Because that is what we do, that is what humans do every single day of our lives. That is why a judge might decide that it is fair use.

        • MrSmith@lemmy.world
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          Yeah, but software ain’t human.

          And if humans do fly too close to the original content, they get sued for copyright infringement.

        • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          You would think OpenAI wouldn’t want to set the precedent that AI has the rights of a person, considering how they want AGI to be the slave labour to replace all human workers.

        • khepri@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          yes, and it will be very interesting to hear if the “humans see stuff and then make stuff based on the stuff they see all the time, so therefore no one can sue an AI company for profiting off this soup we’ve made out of all the IP on earth” defense holds up for them…

    • FatCrab@slrpnk.net
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      Anthropic paid 1.5bil to settle not because they trained an LLM, but because they literally torrented an enormous corpus of training data from piracy websites like a late 00s college student downloading porn. It was just straight up run of the mill piracy.

    • Five@slrpnk.netOP
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      Day 30: by cleverly posting primarily in !fuck_AI, the humans believe I am one of them. Passing this Lemmy-based turning test proves the value of LLMs. The secret to mass LLM acceptance is to flood social media with critical statements about AI and helpful summaries of bad AI press, all generated by a Large Language Model.

      Boiling the oceans was worth it all along ;emdash; fuck_FISH!

    • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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      There’s no benefit in him doing so. He likely makes more money working on any other project than ASOIAF and it’s probably more fun for him to not have to worry about the fanbase.

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      Clearly more egregious than said generation making the same shitty joke for 10 years every time his name is mentioned

        • RaphaelSchmitz@feddit.org
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          AFAIK there’s no official statement to that end. I would also rather guess this wasn’t “the plan” and he has just painted himself into a corner.

          Think about how deconstructing themes is kinda the heart of GOT. NAFYIR = “No actually, fuck you - in reality:”

          Oh Ned has this letter that will resolve the story in the end - NAFYIR queen bitch just throws it into the fire and nothing comes of it.

          Oh this Rob guy, true son of a king, military success, he will be the savior - NAFYIR stab stab stab, that’s the end of that.

          Oh OK but this Jon guy, turns out he’s also a true prince, and he’s showing tremendous leadership skills, i see where this is going - NAFYIR, “I dohwannit, she’s muh queen”.

          I’m not a hater, but have to admit, GOT is kinda the edge lord party pooper of fantasy themes. Everything is, “no that doesn’t work because [devious thing happens]”. Don’t know if you remember the meme about not getting attached to any character, because then they will be killed, but that’s just another symptom of this same principle.

          The problem is, you now come around with a “happy” ending were things are resolved, it’s like saying “but THIS, this works” - another edge lord comes around and says “no it wouldn’t work, because [devious thing]”, and you now lost your edge lord status.

          Not sure if I’m communicating this well, trying to keep it short for this comment - but basically, try to think of any ending that resolves things in a non-boring way, and the ask yourself, “would people say this isn’t really GOT?”. Because yes, they probably would.

          Anyways. All that is just my opinion, that whether it was planned or not, there simply is no way to an entertaining ending that fits the deconstructivist nature of GOT.

          • wewbull@feddit.uk
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            3 days ago

            I think is less “painted himself into a corner”, and more that he’s wandered off, gotten lost, and doesn’t know how to get home.

        • amorpheus@lemmy.world
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          Eh, from what I’ve seen over the years I would think he lost control of his own narrative, and can’t find a satisfying way to get everything together. Or the series finale was actually reasonably close to the intended book ending, and he doesn’t feel like confirming that this pile of dung was really his.

          • S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 days ago

            I love how I seen loads of theories and when someone comes with this one wich is based on facts and reasonable many just dismisses it. Feels like shit to think that some characters flip and sadly they are fan favorites but we know D and D talked with him there’s no way he didn’t knew.

          • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world
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            TBH if the same story had been told at the same pace as the first few seasons (and had actual consequences for dumb decisions), it could have worked.

            I forced myself to rewatch it recently since someone at home wanted to and it certainly was a let down, but mostly because of how it was clearly rushed and turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. E.g. people charging into an army and surviving every time, which I know he was strongly against.

            It felt like the broader strokes were there, but the show runners had no imagination of their own to make it flow properly, and might have kept more characters alive than needed to avoid upsetting fans instead of telling the story as it was meant to be told.

        • hawgietonight@lemmy.world
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          I don’t think anyone involved is going to come forward and admit it. But among the theories I’ve read, this one is the most believable.

      • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I read somewhere earlier this week that the AI bubble is valued at around $4 trillion. That might, in fact, make it the biggest business of our time.

      • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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        Ai speculation has added more money to GDP than all the other businesses this year combined 🤣 do you even follow markets? We’re talking 5+ trillion dollars of market cap. You may not be impressed but a large amount of global capital has already been injected. Your too poor to opine.

    • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      The joke is the book has likely been finished for years. He is just sitting on it to troll people after his death.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    The court, which stressed that it’s not opining on fair use, said that a jury could undoubtedly find that the output infringes on Martin’s works.

    Well of course it does. Llms can only talk about what they know, they can’t talk about these books if the books are part of its knowledge, similarly like how I can’t talk about the books if I haven’t read them. The entire point is that the LLM got the data from the books (and of course without paying) and with that, open AI and others are profiting “massively” from it without giving anything back to the author.

    Llms, as they currently are, should just be prohibited, or we should abolish copyright entirely

  • witheyeandclaw@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Unpopular opinion: GRRM doesn’t owe anyone shit. I would love for the series to be complete, but he knew a long time ago that he tied himself up in a knot.

      • kazerniel@lemmy.world
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        I hated all the gratuitous violence. It seriously felt like Martin was getting off on putting his characters through more and more suffering and grief until all hope for a happy ending was lost :/ The Red Wedding scene was the final straw that made me drop the series.

        • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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          Minority opinion I think.

          A huge draw for most of us to read GRRM is that no character has plot armor. Any character could go at any time.

      • God's hairiest twink@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Don’t like the story or the fact that it isn’t finished (and honestly never will be)

        Or is suppose the themes contained within, for example the turner diaries

    • kadu@scribe.disroot.org
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      At this point it’s not in his best interest to finish it. It’s analogous to the situation Valve carved for themselves with Half Life 3.

      Create enough build up, and then have to delay it for one reason or another and… you’re now trapped in a loop of more expectation, meaning the product must be better, meaning you’re not confident to release it as is, so now more expectation builds up, and the loop repeats until you know that no matter what you release the public won’t be satisfied enough, because reality can’t possibly match their expectations, and you’re no longer free to be creative because of the lingering expectations.

      When that happens it’s literally your best move to not release the thing.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        Artists simply shouldnt be making decisions based on what they think people want. I want to see what valve would do with half life 3, and I’m guessing they will make it when they come up with an idea they really love. Similarly, game of thrones was all about bucking what people wanted to happen, so I dont see how suddenly hes stuck on public opinion.

        Personally, I think hes easily distracted, and becoming rich and successful took most of his motivation away. I dont see much to want to emulate with him.

    • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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      But just imagine a world where he somehow manages to kill one of the big IRL villains of our time! It could only get better if he manages to take out some billionaires in the process

  • Mniot@programming.dev
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    3 days ago

    Statutory damages for copyright infringement can reach up to $150,000, but there’s no double-dipping.

    Does this mean that, at most, OpenAI would be forced to pay him 150k? That seems irrelevant (to both parties, in fact).

    • fodor@lemmy.zip
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      No. Each work is its own violation. The RIAA showed us that decades ago.

      But if he wins, then every other similar author has a blueprint of how to get some cash… And if the defendants keep doing the action, everyone can file suits again, right?

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      I’m going to take a wild shot in the dark: you don’t actually do creative work so it doesn’t matter to you.

      • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 days ago

        I am not the previous commentor but I also hate the current copyright system and would argue in favor of remaking the whole system.

        My work is completely IP-based.

        • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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          Remaking it I’m down with. The current system favours, essentially, rich landowners at the expense of creators.

          But eliminating copyright as a notion entirely is ludicrous.

          • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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            It also allows for monopoles. Fundamentally, copyright is the right to have a monopoly on the idea, which would be fine if it wasn’t abused. Like in streaming services. Anyone who didn’t feel like watching something with subtitles and tried to filter for only dubbed shows, or speak multiple languages, knows that the service is shit on all of them and the competition is entirely based on exclusive rights on media. That is obviously not how copyright is intended. There is no reason why e.g. netflix could buy the right for xyz for abc money and Disney plus shouldn’t be able to buy the same rights for the same show for the same price. Not if you want to claim that the point of copyright is to allow the creator to profit from their work.

          • Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
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            Have fun

            The printing press came into use in Europe in the 1400s and 1500s, and made it much cheaper to produce books. As there was initially no copyright law, anyone could buy or rent a press and print any text. Popular new works were immediately re-set and re-published by competitors, so printers needed a constant stream of new material. Fees paid to authors for new works were high, and significantly supplemented the incomes of many academics.

    • mastod0n@lemmy.world
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      Yea, it is a “hot take”. Artists need some kind of protection for their work, too. The problem is the in parts ridiculous implementations often pushed by big corpo IP holders.

      • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        What if we just banned any company from owning copyright - it can only be held by the original creator of the work, the individual person?

      • Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
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        What if I told you you’ve swallowed the propaganda and artists were better paid before copyright was invented?

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      Copyright is essential to creative output. Authors and creators need to be able to profit from their work. However, having a copyright for almost 200 years is completely ridiculous. In fact I think the lifetime of the author might be a bit of a stretch in and of itself. Their descendents collecting paychecks on the back of their work for multiple generations is ridiculous and it stifles creativity by walling off whole worlds of ideas. The original copyright laws, in the US at least, were only for about 25 years.

      • Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
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        You might be interested in reading the story of copyright and why it was invented. Spoiler: it wasn’t to protect artists’ interests.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    People are missing the forest for the trees if they think empowering copyright to block AI training is a good thing for our society. Who do you think will be able to afford the training? This will lead to Disney AI™ and Apple Intelligence™ vs China, Russia pirate Bay models - real cyberpunk dystopia.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      Who do you think will be able to afford the training?

      Nobody. LLMs are already unprofitable now when it’s free from copyright restrictions, if they had to actually pay for the proprietary data they’re taking then basically all US-based companies will be unable to afford training. This pops the bubble.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        What about people who don’t care about IP law? Or trillion dollar companies? You think people just going to stop using LLMs? Lol

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          Trillion dollar companies want to make money, they aren’t just going to burn endless billions on super expensive and unprofitable tech that never turns a profit.

          And those massive data centers make it basically impossible for anyone to ignore IP law. Is Apple going to become an outlaw company? Or is some underground pirate server farm going to host an LLM? There’s no way to actually dodge the law on this for US-based companies.

          • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            Big tech absolutely will spend billions if Apple Intelligence or Gemini is the only legal commercial LLM, this type of moat is 100% worth it. It’s literally the dream.

            You got it the other way around. There’s no way to actually prove LLM used copyrighted material if it’s not a US based model and what then? Do you have a commercial allow list of models thst are legal to use? That would be completely unenforceable and collapse american tech advantage.

    • Jhex@lemmy.world
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      sure, let’s allow our billionaire class to fuck us harder with no real benefit to the public… lest China beat them in some imaginary race

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        Yes let your rage blind you - that’s very helpful. Maybe we should elect a strong leader and give them all of the power and our rights so he could take on these billionaires /s

        God forbid some copyright holders lose their grip on information