Was this meant in response to what I wrote or did you mean to post this elsewhere in the thread? If the former, I'm not sure what am I supposed to do with this.

> Was this meant in response to what I wrote or did you mean to post this elsewhere in the thread? If the former, I'm not sure what am I supposed to do with this.

You wrote:

  You may notice that opinions are like assholes: everyone 
  has theirs. They're literally just "thoughts and feelings". 
  They may masquerade as arguments from time to time, much to 
  my dismay, but rest assured: there's nothing to "refute", 
  debate, or even dispute on them. Not in general, nor in 
  this specific case either.

I provided analysis supporting my position that the project maintainers most likely did not make this policy based on "literally just 'thoughts and feelings'" and, instead, made an informed policy based on experience and rational discourse.

I am not a Gentoo maintainer so cannot definitively state possibility #3 is what happened. Maybe one or both of the other two possibilities is what transpired. I doubt it, but if you have evidence refuting possibility #3, please share so we may all learn.

An informed opinion is still an opinion. Voting itself is an expression of opinion, which they participated in - if it merely followed logically, it wouldn't have needed to be voted upon. Mind you, the "experience and rational discourse" is not presented, not in the policy, not in the excerpts and link you just provided.

In order to "refute" their entire position, if we accept that to even make sense (I do not), I'd need to either prove them wrong about what their opinions are (nonsense), or show evidence they were actually holding a different opinion that ran contrary to what they shared (impossible, their actual opinion is known only to them, if that). There's very little "logical payload" to their published policy, if any. It's a series of opinions, and then a conclusion. Hence my example with the person not liking a given TV show, but stating their distaste as a fact of the world.

> I doubt it, but if you have evidence refuting possibility #3, please share so we may all learn.

Why am I being rhetorically coerced into engaging with something from a false set of options of your imagination, exactly?

> I provided analysis supporting my position that the project maintainers most likely did not make this policy based on "literally just 'thoughts and feelings'" and, instead, made an informed policy based on experience and rational discourse.

That position would look better if they hadn't relied so heavily on feelings to justify the announcement:

>> Their operations are causing concerns about the huge use of energy and water.

>> The advertising and use of AI models has caused a significant harm to employees [which ones?] and reduction of service quality.

>> LLMs have been empowering all kinds of spam and scam efforts.

There is no experience or rational discourse involved there.

You're missing a very important reason

4 - There is a very active anti-LLM activist movement and they care more about participating in it than they care about free software.

For example, see their rationale, which are just canned anti-LLM activist talking points. You see the same ones repeated and memed ad nauseam if you lurk on anti-AI spaces.

> You're missing a very important reason

> 4 - There is a very active anti-LLM activist movement ...

All I can say to this is that my position is Large Language Models (LLM's) are a combination of algorithms and data.

As as such, for me they do not qualify as anything to be either "pro" or "anti", let alone a participant of an activist movement.

They were not talking about LLMs being participants of anything, but people who are against LLMs in whatever capacity. Surely people can be participants of a movement.

>> All I can say to this is that my position is Large Language Models (LLM's) are a combination of algorithms and data.

>> As as such, for me they do not qualify as anything to be either "pro" or "anti", let alone a participant of an activist movement.

> They were not talking about LLMs being participants of anything ...

Clearly I was referencing LLM's being something to foment "an activist movement" in an attempt to de-escalate the implication of there being some kind of "anti-LLM activist movement."

> ... but people who are against LLMs in whatever capacity. Surely people can be participants of a movement.

At this point your replies to my posts appear to be intentionally adversarial.

> Clearly I was referencing LLM's being something to foment "an activist movement" in an attempt to de-escalate the implication of there being some kind of "anti-LLM activist movement."

Well, no, that really wasn't clear to me at all. I don't think it was clear in general either.

> At this point your replies to my posts appear to be intentionally adversarial.

Not my actual intention, apologies, although I 100% understand if at this point that is not at all believable.

> in an attempt to de-escalate the implication of there being some kind of "anti-LLM activist movement."

Are you trying to imply that there isn't an anti-LLM activist movement? There certainly is

you can just google it

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=anti%20llm%20activist%...

a subreddit dedicated to the anti-AI movement

https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/

"what is the goal of the so-called anti-ai movement"

https://www.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1mn3hh8/what_is_the...

"how do we build an anti-ai movement"

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistHate/comments/1hk3wuj/how_do_...

"The New Luddites Aren’t Backing Down

Activists are organizing to combat generative AI and other technologies—and reclaiming a misunderstood label in the process."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/new-l...

"Anti-AI Explained: Why Resistance to Artificial Intelligence Is Growing

As AI tools become more advanced, a growing chorus of critics is raising alarms about job loss, misinformation and other societal risks. Learn what’s fueling the anti-AI movement."

https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/anti-ai

"together against AI"

https://togetheragainstai.com/

and on and on

I invite people to become familiar with the movement and their arguments and compare them to the Gentoo rationale.