Item — HN Reader

I don't see the parallel between this offensive tool and DRM. I could, say buy a perpetual license to an image from the artist, so that I can print it and put it on my wall, while it can simultaneously be poisonous to an AI system. I can even steal it and print it, while it is still poisonous to an AI system.

The closest parallel I can think of is that humans can ingest chocolate but dogs should not.

3 comments

What you've described is the literal, dictionary definition of Digital Rights Management - a technology to restrict the use of a digital asset beyond the contractually-agreed terms. Copying is only one of many uses that the copyright-holder may wish to prevent. The regional lockout on a DVD had nothing to do with copy-protection, but it was still DRM.

It's about the arm's race: DRM will always be cracked (with a sufficiently motivated customer.) AI poisoning will always be cracked (with a sufficiently motivated crawler.)

A huge amount of DRM effort has been spent in the watermarking area, which is similar, but not exactly the same.