tante17h ago
"On the acceptance of GenAI"
https://smallsheds.garden/blog/2026/on-the-acceptance-of-genai/
Show threadYet another Josh 15h ago

@tante

None of these are true if you run your own LLMs on your own hardware, using FLOSS models.

But the #MastodonHOA has deemed all AI to be abhorrent as a blanket decision.

And frankly, if you exist in a capitalist society, and you're not an owner, there is 100% chance you are exploited. The capitalist system requires it.

Show threadtante15h ago
@crankylinuxuser FLOSS Models (which are only freeware) fulfill most of those boxes. Trained on stolen data, massaged by people in global majority countries, trained in environmentally harmful data centers, outsourcing skills to the freeware product a company dumped on me, using a tool that is imbued and trained for how big tech wants to see the world, and effort could have gone to something meaningful. So yeah nope.
Show threadGustavo15h ago
@tante @crankylinuxuser I guess some people have zero idea of how AI model training works. They have the impression that "if I run this HuggingFace model in my hardware, it's ethical" but kinda think those models got uploaded there out of thin air, without any implications.
Show threadGustavo14h ago

@tante @crankylinuxuser Example: I use Whisper for audio transcription (mostly for accessibility issues, it's harder for me to understand audio messages than text messages), so I know using it, even self-hosted, tick most boxes.

I'm sure it was trained on stolen data (as it constantly returns things like "subtitles by example.com"), I'm sure training it hurt the environment, I'm sure the company behind it (OpenAI) does not have a viable business model (but, to be fair, I don't care about that, governments also don't have a viable business model, they don't have to).

But, since I'm using it for accessibility and there is no alternatives, we need to consider the trade offs and promote research that reduces those issues ethically. Saying "bUt I Am RuNNinG iT LoCAllY so ITs eThICAl" is dumb.

Show threadGustavo

@tante @crankylinuxuser So, my objetive here: sure, current AI is truly unethical and sadly we have lots of people that want to be blind about its issues, but, not all from it is bad.

I can't just say to a illiterate person "can you write for me instead of speaking?" because they just can't do that. I talk with lots of illiterate people, I'm in the construction business, lots of workers only know numbers and how to write their own name. So, Whisper, despite not being ethical, is what I use.

But, are there ethical alternatives? At the moment, I didn't find anything as reliable as Whisper, but there's the Common Voice dataset, which is free, which could be used to solve the issue of being trained on stolen data (but not the environmental issues).

4:26pmWeb