Code automatic input AI 'GitHub Copilot' pointed out that 'a service that sells developer's code without permission'

The software development platform GitHub is working with the AI development organization OpenAI to develop the AI ' GitHub Copilot ' that describes the continuation of the code. From June 21, 2021, all GitHub users have been able to use GitHub Copilot, but it has been pointed out that this GitHub Copilot 'infringes the copyright of the source code from which it was learned'. is.

github copilot is incredible. it just sells code other people wrote, but because it's an 'AI' it is apparently allowed to launder that code without it being a 'derivative work'.

— Senior Oops Engineer (@ReinH) June 22, 2022

GitHub Copilot is a code auto-completion AI that supports dozens of programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go, and predicts the continuation of user-written code and automatically inputs it. GitHub Copilot isn't a complete human alternative as it may write different versions of code or code that deviates from best practices, but it's highly regarded by experienced programmers as useful for coding support. It has been.

However, it has been found through communication with GitHub support personnel that the code uploaded on GitHub was used for learning GitHub Copilot regardless of the license type. For this reason, it has been argued that commercial use of GitHub Copilot may be a copyright issue.

Is the programming AI 'Copilot' learned from the GitHub source code a copyright infringement? --GIGAZINE

After GitHub Copilot was opened to all users, new software engineer @ReinH said that licensed codes such as the ' MIT License ', which requires credit notation when redistributing the code, were used to learn GitHub Copilot. I blame GitHub Copilot as 'a service that sells code written by others without permission' by giving an example that the code of the learning source is displayed as it is in GitHub Copilot.

reminder that

1. The MIT license, the most popular license on github, requires attribution
2. Copilot has been shown to reproduce substantial portions of its sources verbatim

— Senior Oops Engineer (@ReinH) June 22, 2022

In addition, @ReinH points out that Microsoft, which owns GitHub, has many lawyers, arguing that it costs a lot for developers to complain about GitHub Copilot's problems.

github will probably get away with this — they have a lot of lawyers on retainer — but legal is not the same thing as ethical

— Senior Oops Engineer (@ReinH) June 22, 2022

Many developers have agreed with @ ReinH's remarks, and the news sharing site Hacker News has posted an opinion asking for an option to exclude their code from learning on GitHub Copilot. On the other hand, there is an opinion that 'even if there is a copyright problem, many developers will close their eyes because of its convenience.'