The oil slick is illegal. I’m not sure this is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of LLMs as a service, in part, because of this. We already have too many for-profit machines deciding what the public thinks, and regulating their unsavory uses requires the regulation of ideas, which just moves the levers of influence from one power to another and we end up fucked either way. We’re in a bad spot. Btw once I finish updating my rpg book, my next project is locking this place down into a humans-only sanctuary.
The idea that the line is at "legal/illegal" rather than "ethical/unethical" or "moral/immoral" is neoliberal bullshit. The great companies of America were created and operated on the idea that they were community members with an obligation to the community. The great companies of America were destroyed by the libertarian idea that companies were obligated to do anything and everything for the benefit of the shareholder regardless of anything else. That's a post about the content that OpenAI will reproduce and the content it won't. It's entirely related to financial impact and utterly divorced from legal peral, much as how Pornhub was bereft of Paris Hilton's naughty bits but awash in Traci Lords'. They're doing what they can get away with and since there's no one to sue them for generic manosphere bullshit, they're all in. The issue is not "is this bad" it's "what is the downside for us."
But the downside to regulating pollution is more palatable than that of regulating ideas. Free speech isn't neoliberal bullshit. It's the foundation of democracy. But we are a long way from when free speech meant pamphlets of Farmer Refuted. And thus, we are forced further into this quandary where we give permission to the government to regulate the ideas economy because of nasty ideas on the market, and what we get is more than we asked for.
That's a flag, not a bathrobe. Treat it with respect. I had a subscription to Delta Press, albeit through a pseudonym because I wasn't stupid, albeit still delivered to my home address because actually, I kinda was. Delta Press was awash in ideas. I had a book called "improvised PETN & Mercury Fulminate." I had another on assembling legally air-tight alternate identities. Those weren't regulated and still aren't. Tim McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in OKC because of the Turner Diaries, which is very much still available in many languages and formats. Generations of teenagers have read The Anarchist Cookbook and thought they learned something. "For informational purposes only." AI isn't an idea, it's a product. In this case, it's a product encouraging harm. Michelle Carter went to jail for encouraging harm and the CSPC pulls harmful products off the market. I'm willing to bet you or I can sit in a room with a lawn dart without hurting anyone. I'm not so sure about my neighbors. The cornet gets cued up whenever someone knows that what they want individually is bad socially. If your porn harms women your porn needs to be regulated. If your kids toys harm kids your toys need to be regulated. If your chatbot tells incels they'll never be loved unless they get $80k in surgery it needs to be regulated. Especially if you're making money at it.