[kstrauser]

That’s an important point and one I’ve thought about a bit. If a human reads my code, then the next time they have to write similar code of their own, mine might be kicking around in the back of their head as an example (or maybe a counterexample if they think my implementation was awful; that’s at least equally likely). I’ve learned to code by reading what others wrote. I mean, my first exposure to code was typing in games from the backs of magazines so all of that author’s work went through my brain and fingers on its way to the CPU.

So is there an essential difference if an AI is involved in the middle? I genuinely don’t know. It feels different, but I can’t defend my opinion other than that “it just is”.

[gaigalas]

If I see a human copying me, I know for a fact at least one person was impacted by what I do. Even if that person never acknowledges me publicly, or forgets I even exist, I know for a fact that what I did meant something.

Scrapers gobble everything up. Good, bad, memorable, non-memorable. Doesn't matter. I don't know, maybe one day I'll make a small piece of code that changes how an AI behaves (profoundly, by being in the training data, not superficially when used in the prompt). However, that hasn't happened yet. I also think it's unlikely to happen.

I know this isn't what you were going for, but it's good enough for this discussion to estabilish a critical difference. I don't even have to touch consciousness or anything like that to argue within those lines.

[kstrauser]

That makes sense. I don't personally see it quite that way, but understand why you and others might.

[gaigalas]

That's fascinating! What compels you to not value that phenomena?