Microsoft’s AI-powered tool Copilot is facing a potential open-source coder group action on Github.
The for-profit artificial intelligence of the American giant would indeed have been trained using billions of lines of code accessible to everyone and hosted on the collaborative platform.
A copilot class action against Copilot
As a reminder, Microsoft acquired Github in 2018. Last June, the Redmond firm launched Github Copilot, a Visual Studio extension using prediction algorithms to automatically complete lines of code. The AI used by Copilot would be based on Codex, created and trained by OpenAI.
To take advantage of the services of Copilot, Microsoft offers a license to developers from 10 dollars per month, or via a subscription of 100 dollars per year. However, the AI was trained via lines of open-source code on Github, from which contributors derive no profit.
Matthew Butterick, programmer and lawyer, has set up a site called Github Copilot Investigation, cited in source below. This is a first step to bring together other volunteer contributors on Github to mount a class action against Copilot.
Butterick is particularly vocal about Microsoft’s tool, writing on the site ” Like Neo plugged into the Matrix or a cow on a farm, Copilot wants to turn us into nothing more than producers of a resource to be extracted. And again, cows at least get food and shelter in return. It would seem here that Microsoft is taking advantage of the work of others by disregarding the terms of open-source licenses and other legal requirements. “.
Ethics and AI don’t mix
Even though an open-source code can be freely used by everyone, good practice requires that the original source be credited. Something that Copilot is unable to do by compiling billions of lines of code picked here and there, often even word for word, despite assurances to the contrary by Github.
In its defense, Microsoft indicates that the code used by Copilot falls under the United States copyright law of the ” fair use » transformative. But, as Butterick points out on his site, such legislation has not yet been established when it comes to work carried out by artificial intelligence.
As can be seen from the tweet above, Butterick seems to be not the only open-source coder to disagree with Copilot. He thus invites potential complainants to contact the firm in which he works to set up a class action file in good and due form.
Artificial intelligence definitely continues to be divisive, the most glaring recent case being works of art created via tools such as DALL-E or Midjourney. So much so that, failing to be able to stop them, art communities have decided to ban such works from within, to protect the work of flesh and blood artists.
It remains to be seen whether the class action initiated by Butterick against Copilot will bear fruit or not.
Source : Github Copilot Investigation
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