Post B22XmUVCofAFuuR0VM by glyph@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by glyph@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B22XmUVCofAFuuR0VM by glyph@mastodon.social
       2026-01-07T10:52:29Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       "LLMs learn the same way a person does, it's not plagiarism"This is a popular self-justification in the art-plagiarist community. It's frustrating to read because it's philosophically incoherent but making the philosophical argument is annoyingly difficult, particularly if your interlocutor maintains a deliberate ignorance about the humanities (which you already know they do). But there is a simpler mechanical argument you can make instead: "learning" is inherently mutual.
       
 (DIR) Post #B22XmW1r8ksMeSib2G by glyph@mastodon.social
       2026-01-07T10:54:26Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       A teacher “learning more from their students” is such a common observation that it is a cliché. Colleagues mutually learn from each other in professional settings. Actual artists are in conversation with one another, not just learning from a static historical canon. Etc, etc.LLMs cannot do this. The output that an LLM produces contains a sort of poisonous residue that makes it destroy the reasoning capacity of other LLMs; this is a well-known problem in the field, known as "model collapse".
       
 (DIR) Post #B22Xmb3SSE80EsVRj6 by glyph@mastodon.social
       2026-01-07T10:54:47Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Thus, when an LLM absorbs some stolen data, what is happening cannot be 'learning'; it's something else. When we call it 'training', that's a metaphor, not a description. In reality, it is a parasitic activity that requires fresh non-LLM-generated information from humans in order to be sustainable.Q.E.D.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_collapse>
       
 (DIR) Post #B22Xmg7Bdn57vtHzjU by glyph@mastodon.social
       2026-01-07T10:55:19Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       (This is not an original thought. Although I've expanded on it a bit here, I have sadly lost reference to the original citation I wanted to use and search on Mastodon is intentionally dysfunctional; if you know who I'm paraphrasing here, feel free to link it up in a reply.)