"if that makes lives of humans better" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and remains to be explained.
Computer programs don't take actions, people do. If I use a web browser, or scrape some site to make an LLM, that's me doing it, not the program. And I have human rights.
If you think training LLMs should be illegal, just say that. If you think LLM companies are putting an undue strain on computer networks and they should be forced to pay for it, say that. But don't act like it's a virtue to try and capriciously gatekeep access to a public resource.
I was being unclear, but that's on me since it was intentional. But to clarify my stance - I'm against accidental or intentional equalization of programs with individual humans and using that as a foundation for all kinds of negative (imo) corporate behavior later.
For example - humans can learn, programs can't. The "learning" cop out for LLM-corpos shouldn't be accepted by anyone, let alone by law. Humans have a fair use carve out of the copyright laws, not because it's something axiomatic, it's because some humans with empathy have forced others to allow all humans a leeway in legally using other's IP works. Just because such law exist for humans, doesn't mean that random computer programs should be applicable to it. Scraping web for LLMs should not be considered "fair use" because a) it is clearly not (commercialized later) and b) programs aren't humans and don't have equal rights.
And the list goes on. Now, I do get that train has long left the station and we are all collectively living in the anecdote about stealing a bicycle and asking god for forgiveness. But that doesn't mean I agree with this state. I'm just shouting my displeasure towards that passing train cause I'm weird like that. It's like with climate change - we are doing nothing that matters, no one discusses what really matters and I just accepted that nothing will really change. Doesn't mean I like the situation.
PS: tl;dr - LLMs clearly should be legal, it's just simple code is all. LLM corporations who steal IP content without compensation to the authors should be illegal, but of course they won't ever be.
PPS: there is a huge, gigantic gap between a single person scraping a few thousand pages for a personal use, maybe even some small local commercial use (though that's a grey area already) and a billion dollar megacorp, intent on destroying everything of value for humans in the internet for profit.
Computer programs don't take actions, people do. If I use a web browser, or scrape some site to make an LLM, that's me doing it, not the program. And I have human rights.
If you think training LLMs should be illegal, just say that. If you think LLM companies are putting an undue strain on computer networks and they should be forced to pay for it, say that. But don't act like it's a virtue to try and capriciously gatekeep access to a public resource.