"[Stats NZ] learnt that NZ Police had outsourced some research and were then informed that the vendor had used AI. NZ Police were surprised that they had not been told prior, and the vendor was surprised that it was an issue. This use raised important questions for NZ Police:
- Who owns the data used?
- What does it mean if the vendor used AI from offshore? If they did, does that contravene Te Tiriti o Waitangi regarding Māori taonga?"
WHO OWNS THE DATA IS A QUESTION?
https://data.govt.nz/blog/algorithm-charter-cop-the-rubber-hits-the-road/
The answers, without a shadow of the doubt, are that the people who owned the data before "AI" was applied still own the data.
As for a breach of Te Tiriti, I am considerably more concerned about the intended outcome of the research being a treaty breach in itself, than in the vendor breaching the treaty in a nuanced way.
The basic competence of everyone involved is the concern. This is central government advising Police, and they're framing the discussion as if data ownership is in doubt.
Come to my arms @ensslen! You have hit on a wellspring of shitfuckery there, and I agree 100% with your take on it. Going further, I've seen a good argument made that an LLM is a "derivative work" - in a strict copyright sense - and the copyright to it is collectively owned by whoevers data is was trained on.
I would only clarify that - as I'm sure we agree - the more nuanced treaty breaches *are* still significant. But far from the most egregious breaches involved in the overall situation.
One way to summarise how NZ govt ICT procurement is often done is; prescribe some outcomes, outsource to the lowest bidder, don't even ask about methods and ignore any attempt to explain them. If the outcome of feeding N people with P amount of protein is met, at the cheapest price, it doesn't matter that Soylent Green is people.
#ShowerThoughts: An LLM is digital Soylent Green.
"It is the mental projection, of your digital self."
#Morpheus, The Matrix
I always thought he got it backwards. In The Matrix, the avatar they enact is pretty obviously a digital projection of their mental self.
But maybe that line was *way* more prophetic than I realised...