Controversy brewing in the iNaturalist community over the nonprofit's partnership with Google to make generative-AI text content.
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@futurebird The described use seems targeted to resolve a recurring shortcoming of the site, and wouldn't touch the images.
But that they are oblivious to how a group of nature nerds might react to a sudden partnership with the tech death star? Does not bode well for the organization.
I have never thought "oh this site isn't fast enough with tentative IDs" It's working great and I like it. If anything from the other comments from the mite and silverfish people the IDs come in too quickly and this can cause mistakes.
I'm not someone who thinks AI can never be used to do anything. It's very good at speech to text.
But having watched the state of free information on insects go from "OK" to "unusable" on the rest of the web due to AI this just scares me.
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I have never thought "oh this site isn't fast enough with tentative IDs" It's working great and I like it. If anything from the other comments from the mite and silverfish people the IDs come in too quickly and this can cause mistakes.
I'm not someone who thinks AI can never be used to do anything. It's very good at speech to text.
But having watched the state of free information on insects go from "OK" to "unusable" on the rest of the web due to AI this just scares me.
@futurebird @alexwild Reading the linked thread (well the first 7 comments or so) it seems like there's a use case for machine learning based language models but bringing GOOGLE of all companies in makes one expect the "quality" highlighted in google search AI results and, well, that seems like an association you'd want to avoid at all costs.
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@futurebird @alexwild Reading the linked thread (well the first 7 comments or so) it seems like there's a use case for machine learning based language models but bringing GOOGLE of all companies in makes one expect the "quality" highlighted in google search AI results and, well, that seems like an association you'd want to avoid at all costs.
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@futurebird @r343l @alexwild I’m not taking this well either.
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@futurebird @alexwild
First I've heard. The thread is only 5 hours old.It's a Google announcement that is Google announced that iNaturalist is one of "20 organizations joining the newest Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI cohort."
Here’s the next cohort of the Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI
Meet the 20 organizations using generative AI to address tough societal issues.
Google (blog.google)
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@futurebird @r343l @alexwild I’m not taking this well either.
@ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
Agreed. I only saw this because Alex posted. My pop-ups only show donation asks and a job opening for a mobile developer.
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@ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
Agreed. I only saw this because Alex posted. My pop-ups only show donation asks and a job opening for a mobile developer.
@kellyromanych @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
I look forward to seeing what iNat says about it when they publish their promised blog post.
That said, I just added this to the top of my iNat profile:
I DO NOT CONSENT to any of my iNat content being used Google in any way, for any purpose, EVEN to "benefit" iNaturalist.
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@kellyromanych @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
I look forward to seeing what iNat says about it when they publish their promised blog post.
That said, I just added this to the top of my iNat profile:
I DO NOT CONSENT to any of my iNat content being used Google in any way, for any purpose, EVEN to "benefit" iNaturalist.
@xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
I'm going to do the same
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@xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
I'm going to do the same
@kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild note that if you have your contributions set to a Creative Commons license that doesn't prohibit derivatives and commercial use, you've already granted them (and everyone else) irrevocable permission to do pretty much whatever they want with them.
You can change the license field, but that doesn't have any legal effect on anyone who accessed your contributions under the original license. The best you can do is change the license for new contributions (if any) going forward and hope that courts decide that AI stuff doesn't get a total exemption from copyright laws.
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@kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild note that if you have your contributions set to a Creative Commons license that doesn't prohibit derivatives and commercial use, you've already granted them (and everyone else) irrevocable permission to do pretty much whatever they want with them.
You can change the license field, but that doesn't have any legal effect on anyone who accessed your contributions under the original license. The best you can do is change the license for new contributions (if any) going forward and hope that courts decide that AI stuff doesn't get a total exemption from copyright laws.
@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Gonna do that. Wondering if it’s possible to change the Creative Commons license in bulk on my old observations. I was also wondering whether “with attribution” CC license helps at all.
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@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Gonna do that. Wondering if it’s possible to change the Creative Commons license in bulk on my old observations. I was also wondering whether “with attribution” CC license helps at all.
@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Short answer on changing the CC license on old observations is yes, there’s a checkbox for that. But it raises another question. If you (ahem, theoretically) lock down your account by retaining copyright, you are probably also cutting off your data from @gbif — which is a terrible outcome that diminishes the scientific value of your contributions.
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@kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild note that if you have your contributions set to a Creative Commons license that doesn't prohibit derivatives and commercial use, you've already granted them (and everyone else) irrevocable permission to do pretty much whatever they want with them.
You can change the license field, but that doesn't have any legal effect on anyone who accessed your contributions under the original license. The best you can do is change the license for new contributions (if any) going forward and hope that courts decide that AI stuff doesn't get a total exemption from copyright laws.
@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
Please don't change your observation licenses. It will harm those of use who use your invaluable iNaturalist observations for research. And it will do nothing to prevent anyone from using your text in an AI capacity. -
@kellyromanych @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild
I look forward to seeing what iNat says about it when they publish their promised blog post.
That said, I just added this to the top of my iNat profile:
I DO NOT CONSENT to any of my iNat content being used Google in any way, for any purpose, EVEN to "benefit" iNaturalist.
I signed up for their Q&A. I have questions:
What is Google providing?
What is Google taking?
At any point - in transfer, at rest, processing, etc. - will Google have a copy of iNaturalist observations, photos, or any user-generated data?
As a non-profit organization, how will iNaturalist maintain its independence and deny interference by Google?
What is at risk if this goes badly?
As an iNaturalist user, will I be able to opt out of participation, and deny any use of my date for this pilot? -
I signed up for their Q&A. I have questions:
What is Google providing?
What is Google taking?
At any point - in transfer, at rest, processing, etc. - will Google have a copy of iNaturalist observations, photos, or any user-generated data?
As a non-profit organization, how will iNaturalist maintain its independence and deny interference by Google?
What is at risk if this goes badly?
As an iNaturalist user, will I be able to opt out of participation, and deny any use of my date for this pilot? -
@argentum
At the end of their blog post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/113184-inaturalist-receives-grant-to-improve-species-suggestionsIs the link for the Q&A:
https://inaturalist.typeform.com/to/W44CV9GC
