SebAaltonen: Paid API distillation should not be illegal
alejandroll10 · x · 2026-07-23
SebAaltonen argues that model distillation should not be illegal when it is done through the official API and paid for, drawing a sharp line between that and torrenting pirated books.
The core point is a legal/ethical distinction: using a vendor’s API to learn from outputs is fundamentally different from mass piracy, even if both involve copying content in some sense.
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