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> Among other things, I'm curious about what the FSF would say
> about the *models* the LLMs use. Are they "just data", or should we
> treat them more like object code? What does an LLM that fully adheres to
> FSF principles actually look like?
I've been thinking about this, and my tentative conclusion is that
that precise question is not crucial, because what is certain is that
they are part of the control over the system's behavior. So they
ought to be released under a free license.
In the examples I've heard of, that is never the case. Either they
are secret -- users can only use them on a server, which is SaaSS, see
https://gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html --
or they are released under nonfree licenses that restrict freedom 0;
see https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/programs-must-not-limit-freedom-to-run.html.
As I recall, we don't have a rule against features to interface
servers whose code is not released, and we certainly don't have a rule
against code in Emacs to interact with nonfree software _provided said
software is well known_ -- that is why it is ok to have code to
interact with Windows and Android.
ISTR we have features in Emacs for talking to servers whose code
is not release. But does anyone recall better than I do?
There is the "excorporate" package on GNU ELPA that talks to exchange corporate servers (although perhaps there are free variants that also speak this protocol?). There's the "metar" package on GNU ELPA that receives the weather from the metar system. A brief search didn't find any code for that, but it might exist.
The other interesting find was "sql-oracle", as well as other nonfree similar sql servers in the main emacs lisp. It is a server, although the interface used is local and mediated by a program. But it is an interface to a nonfree utility software. There is no warning given, but a message in `sql--help-docstring' asks the user to consider free alternatives.
--
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)