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This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

John Scalzi

@scalzi.com

"But if it was limited only to public domain it couldn't function like it does!" I mean: a) That's why I noted "licensed and compensated works" b) It doesn't excuse IP theft or materially argue for the value of a tech apparently only possible through IP theft c) It's not too late to compensate!

Seán T. McBeth 🍻📷

@seanmcbeth.com

It doesn't help that there are tons of people, especially in very high places, screaming that they *need* this stuff, that they can't do their work without it, work they had been doing for decades without LLMs.

5/10/26, 8:10 pm2 reposts5 likes

Seán T. McBeth 🍻📷

@seanmcbeth.com

The way I've seen folks in the DoD space go on about it, it's almost tantamount to admitting they've been committing fraud for the previous 30 years of their careers. Just completely leaning into, "I'm incompetent and I expect everyone around me to be the same so we need AI or China is gonna win."