I mean.. it also sends the message that you can ignore the law if you're rich. $1.5B is like a single failed training run for Anthropic. They burn that in a long weekend because somebody forgot to abort a hyper parameter search.
It’s like you can ignore the law if you have a great idea that works out. Lots of people have ended up doing it. Uber did it for a long time. Musk, did it with the sale of Tesla cars. There are a bunch of examples from outside of the US as well.
In most cases it’s for the public good (even if a lot of the public has to be taken kicking and screaming), atleast the examples I listed above are. Uber and Tesla both revolutionized entire industries. So did Anthropic.
Is it? Uber has been a net loss for society. It increased overall VMT, especially in urban areas, and drove riders away from transit. On the whole this is both bad for cities and bad for city dwellers. We have more traffic and less transit, precisely the opposite of what we should be aiming for.
If corporations can selectively ignore whatever laws they don't like, we won't have a functioning society anymore. Our society is predicated on equality under the law. If general trust in that principle breaks down I don't see how democracy survives.
Transit is a win only is large cities. Everywhere else, where most people in the US live (only 6% of the US population lives in dense, walkable urban environments), public transit is not a viable option. Uber is a huge win. Before Uber everyone that lived in a suburb or in a rural and semi rural area (~94% of the population)had to call an expensive limo that would cost hundreds of dollars to get anywhere if you didn’t have a car. That’s a thing of the past now.
I want it to happen again. Copyright is important but I want someone that does tremendous good to be able to fall into a grey area where they’re given a free pass. But only on a case by case basis. Keep the lines fuzzy. That way we get to defend copyright but someone extraordinary also has a ray of hope of getting away with subverting it.
Or something that works for the public good in the long term even if the public won’t accept it now because the masses are short sighted and only care about their own little worlds.
2. There's incredible value in what they stole.
3. IANAL, but I don't believe "but now everyone can write like a terrible version of the writer we fleeced" is a valid legal defense.