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Comment by stefankuehnel | Hacker News Reader

If you scroll down to "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training" in GitHub settings, you can enable or disable it. However, what really gets me is how they pitch it like it’s some kind of user-facing feature:

Enabled = You will have access to the feature

Disabled = You won't have access to the feature

As if handing over your data for free is a perk. Kinda hilarious.

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It’s not so bad, there’s no double negative and it’s not a confusing “switch” that is always ambiguous as to whether it’s enabled or not.

In contrast when you create a a GCS bucket it uses a checkmark for enabling “public access prevention”. Who designed that modal? It takes me a solid minute to figure out if I’m publishing private data or not.

Disabled - You won't have access to this feature of disallowing training.

"<sighs> They could've made this clearer..."

https://old.reddit.com/r/TheSimpsons/comments/26vdkf/dont_do...

I went to check on this and I have everything copilot related disabled and in the two bars that measure usage my Copilot Chat usage was somehow in 2%, how is this possible?

Before anyone comes to me to sell me on AI, this is on my personal account, I have and use it in my business account (but it is a completely different user account), I just make it a point to not use it in my personal time so I can keep my skills sharp.

Does Github count it as copilot chat usage when you use AI search form on their website, I wonder?

I wonder if that’s it! I occasionally do some code search on GitHub and then remember it doesn’t work well and go back to searching in the IDE. I usually need to look into not the main branch because I do a lot of projects that have a develop branch where things actually happen. But that would explain so I guess this is it.

If you're taking about the quota bar. That is only measuring your premium request usage (models with a #.#x multiplier next to the name). If you only use the free models and code completion you won't actually consume any "usage". If you use AI code review that consumes a single request (now). Same with the Github Copilot web chat, if you use a free model, it doesn't count, if you use a premium model you get charged the usage cost.

A few days ago, I unchecked it, only to see it checked again when I reloaded the page.

It could be incompetence but it shouldn't matter. This level of incompetence should be punished equally to malice.

I guess the "perk" is that maybe their models get retrained on your data making them slightly more useful to you (and everyone else) in the future? idk

The feature is that your coding style will be in next models!

I wish my GPL license would transit along with my code.

If you are wholly confident that model training is a violation of the GPL then go sue.

I guess freedom of study and use may include also training AI, but would be cool if all the derivate work, as AI models and generated code from AI models should be licensed as GPL, layers needed here

I said it few years back that code license doesn't exist anymore, some people just haven't realized it yet.

Previously, big tech used to still somehow find loopholes for GPL and licenses still had some value.

Nowadays, It genuinely feels a lot less because there are now services who will re-write the code to prevent the license.

Previously, I used to still think that somewhat non propreitory licenses like the SSPL license etc. might be interesting approaches but I feel like they aren't that much prone to this either now anymore.

So now I am not exactly sure.

It's worded that way to create FOMO in the hopes people keep it enabled.

Dark pattern and dick move.

Is that not some stock feature-flag verbiage?

Stock dark pattern verbiage...

I'm a little surprised the options aren't "Enable" and "Ask me later".

But it isn't a feature, so using a feature flag is a bit weird.

How is it not a feature from a development standpoint? Colloquially any bit of intended functionality qualifies as a "feature" and certainly any functionality you conditionally enable/disable would be controlled by a "feature flag" regardless.

Because the user sees no difference in experience.

Thanks to your comment, I have disabled it now :-)

I agree that it feels like a dart pattern for the most part, makes me want to use codeberg/self hosted git

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