But I asked it because I've spent many nights wondering the same thing about my work in AI, in the United States. Should I pursue something knowing it's legally questionable? How about knowing it's illegal? Big companies seem to walk the tightrope. Joel isn't a big company, yet he's guiding Artbreeder to commercial success. Should I be more ambitious?

These questions affect us all, not just Joel. So I ask it with the sole intention that it might help us navigate the strange waters we often find ourselves in, both as AI researchers and as individuals. I suspect in the coming years that we'll see many more lone-wolf type projects (https://thisfursonadoesnotexist.com/ has recently been making headlines) and legal issues are becoming more and more of an elephant in our shared room.

There are broader ethical questions at play here, too. nVidia trained their model using people's faces, without paying any of them, then claims to hold the rights to limit how people are allowed to make money on the result. Legal, perhaps, but ethical? And if it's unethical, what does that mean we should do, if anything?

Joel's project is a concrete example to point to when someone says "This project has license X, so get real and stop dreaming about starting a business." (The sentiment is shockingly common with almost any AI project, since most AI work comes from big companies with licenses like nVidia's.) Personally, I find it inspiring that someone is doing it anyway.