Not enitely. Classic languages like C, C++, Fortran, Lisp, COBOL, etc., apparently have gotten along just fine without foundations. At most, classic languages have an ISO committee that focus only on the language and not silly things like logos, trademarks, or codes of conduct. Programming languages don't need logos.

Right now "programming" (such as it is) only still exists as a profession because as programmers we're the only folks who can really sanity check the AI's output.

Just like calculators have eliminated mathematicians?

I would put the area code I live in in the allow list. However, my phone number's area code != the area code where I live. Most of the junk calls are from seemingly random area codes.

I still wish either the carriers or the phone OS vendors would allow you set up allow/deny lists based on number regex. In my case, I'd deny all and allow only calls or text messages from a very few specific area codes.

Just a guess: if they worded the patent such that the algorithm compresses data, any data, then that covers images, text, whatever.

Contrast that with an algorithm that does, say, flood fill in a paint program. If you were to try to patent it, it might be harder to come up with generic wording that would cover applications outside of paint programs.

They can go through the charade of trying to stop you, but nothing prevents you from just walking past them without stopping. They have no legal right to stop you. The fact that they do the charade and largely get away with it is because most people are ignorant of the law. Of course if you keep walking past them, they might ban you from the store. That they can legally do.

CostCo is a special case since it's a membership-based retailer. Allowing them to check your receipt is a condition of remaining a member. You can walk past them just the same, but then they can revoke your membership.

A shortage of power is different from, say, a shortage of milk. The per-household cost for a gallon of milk doesn't skyrocket even if there is a shortage .. there's just less of it to go around.

Heavy electricity users can, however, be charged ever-increasing prices per kw-h to curb their use.

It's illegal in California too. I suppose they could try to stop you from leaving, but if you've done nothing wrong, you can turn around and sue them for unlawful detainment.

Why do languages even have foundations? Or trademarks? Classic languages like C, C++, Fortran, COBOL, Lisp, Scheme, etc., don't. At best, they have an ISO committee that actually concerns itself with the technical aspects of the language, not peripheral things like trademarks. Foundations tend to fret over things like codes of conduct.

Pluto would have a different outside temperature than Earth, sure, but that nothing to do with the temperature of a supposed room on Pluto. Presumably, if such a room were built, it would somehow be heated so as to be comfortable for humans without life support suits.

I really despise the whole company "culture" nonsense.

Generally, I agree with you, and in this case, it's just some BS excuse. However, although I've never experienced a bad culture, I've heard horror stories about bad cultures like Cisco and Amazon, e.g., fiefdoms, back-stabbing, or just overly political.

OTOH, I've experienced great cultures where people always took the time to help you if you needed it even if it's for no other reason than to make the stock price go higher.

But the rah, rah type of culture: feh!

Well, all of that is made up out of whole cloth since the bible never mentions IVF. As usual, humans have extrapolated to match their pre-conceived notions.

Copyright law provides an automatic fair use exception for reading a book, looking at a website, playing a movie, etc.

Nope. "Fair use" is specifically and only for "quoting [or excerpting] brief segments for review." Reading a book has nothing to do with copyright. After you buy a book, whether you actually read it is irrelevant. You could use it to put under the short leg of your desk for all the publisher cares. But by purchasing, you have acquired an authorized copy, so no copyright infringement.

"Looking at a website" falls under the publisher granting you a temporary license to view (or, more specifically, for your web browser to download and cache a copy of) said web site generally without charge. Some publishers, however, do charge and are behind paywalls. Regardless, the copy in your browser is an authorized copy, so, again, no copyright infringement.

Playing a movie is similar to either, depending. If a DVD, then it's like the book case. You purchased it, so you have an authorized copy. Whether you actually watch the movie is irrelevant.

The term for these in Title 17 is an "ephemeral copy". So barring any reason to treat AI training differently, an AI model "reading" or "watching" should also not be infringement in and of itself.

But only if it's training on an authorized copy to begin with.

Calling it copying is a rather severe misnomer. To the extent that anything resembling copying occurs, it is a fluke, and means that the model is too small.

The thing that everyone seems to forget is that in order to train an AI model on a work, you have to have a copy of that work. If said copy was not purchased, that's the copyright infringement. Training an AI on the infringing copy is irrelevant.

Whether the AI can produce similar output sufficient to be considered a derivative work is a separate question and may re-trigger copyright infringement even the AI was trained on a legitimately purchased copy of the original work.

I think you replied to the wrong person since what you wrote is a non sequitur to what I wrote.