Post by @cwebber@social.coop

In an interesting moment to watch, legally: https://www.404media.co/reverse-engineer-anything-is-the-new-wild-west-of-ai/

I'm not a fan of / don't respect vibecoding, but I *am* a fan of jailbreaking devices and *legalizing* decompiling (notably, the decompiling work that's interesting is not happening by vibecoders though).

It's an interesting moment because previously corporations have been in the "we can do whatever we want because we're exploiting the commons" perspective, and now things are starting to hit against their own stuff. What will happen? I don't know.

I'm not sure what is going to happen from a legal perspective, but I think we are looking at one of three outcomes:

- This all gets declared legal, which would be a huge win against the ways corporations hold copyright over people
- This all gets declared *illegal*, which could be a win against a bunch of the business cases genAI hinges upon
- But unfortunately, there is also the likely third option: big corporations become allowed to do these things, individuals are not

404 Media

‘Reverse-Engineer Anything’ Is the New Wild West of AI

Decompiled, cloned, and modified software is going viral and might slopify everything.

6 Boosts

1 Like

jrm4

@jrm4@mastodon.social 31 min. ago

@cwebber

1. As an old time, I don't really get all the "vibecoding" disclaimers. Guess I'm from the hacker era, you use what you got to get what you want.

2. None of those 3 things is going to definitively happen so clearly? Up to us to just make it happen (and my gut is that refraining from "vibecoding" ain't the way to go.

logBoy

@ln@social.linux.pizza 42 min. ago

@cwebber Today it occurred to me that these practices might start/enlarge an ecosystem of unlocking software in modern cars.

On the plus side it would break the practice of existing but locked features. Or removing distracting features.
Having such cars on the road might be a massive safety issue though.

Paul Sutton (zleap)

@zleap@techhub.social 49 min. ago

@cwebber

If big tech can do this and try and stop individuals, then individuals can band together and make their case.

Old Fucking Punk

@lwriemen@social.librem.one 1 hr. ago

@cwebber "third option" I'm sure

MintyFries

@mintyfries@mastodon.social 2 hr. ago

@cwebber As soon as I started reading this post, option 3 leapt into my head. That will assuredly be the way things turn out, unfortunately.

allison

@aparrish@friend.camp 2 hr. ago

@cwebber i think what we'll actually see is these folk decomps etc becoming a real source of widespread malware and other exploits, and that will act as an excuse to pass laws that make it effectively illegal to sell CPUs/microcontrollers that can run arbitrary user-supplied code

Cassandrich

@dalias@hachyderm.io 2 hr. ago

@aparrish @cwebber I don't think that is technically or commercially viable.

Javascript from a website is "arbitrary user-supplied code".

At worst they can push down the level at which arbitrary user-supplied code is easy to run, so that normies end up stuck running it in a browser or whatever kind of VM rather than on metal.

And that's before we even get into how embedded/microcontroller commercial ecosystems look.

allison

@aparrish@friend.camp 1 hr. ago

@dalias @cwebber i can't so much as turn on the flashlight of my iphone without apple's explicit permission and a yearly fee

Cassandrich

@dalias@hachyderm.io 1 hr. ago

@aparrish @cwebber I mean that's Apple's software ecosystem and it's how it's always been. Not any sign of a new trend. You certainly can do whatever you want with the flashlight if you wipe Apple's software off it and run something else. I saw someone on fedi posting demos of bringing up Linux with working UI on iPhone 11 a few days ago.

1 more reply

𝕵𝖔𝖘𝖊 𝕸𝖎𝖌𝖚𝖊𝖑

@omixann@mastodon.social 2 hr. ago

@cwebber a while ago I watched Alexander Avila's video on AI discourse and how huge IP holders were instrumentalizing anti-AI sentiment to strengthen copyright, and how AI companies were delighted to be regulated into a cartel where they're the sole providers of "legal AI". This was more than a year ago, it seemed smart but I didn't really think it would play out exactly like that. Now it feels so prescient...

𝙳𝚒𝚖𝚊 𝚂𝚔𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚑

@skavish@welley.social 2 hr. ago

is there good vibecoding and bad vibecoding? where is the line?

Urzl

@gooba42@mastodon.social 2 hr. ago

@cwebber The corporate capture of all things regulatory makes #3 the most likely scenario if the guillotines don't stop being here rhetoric before then.

We're not headed for peaceful places in any near-future timeline.

Jon_Danger :mastodon:

@Jon_Danger@toot.cafe 2 hr. ago

@cwebber I feel the same way, I loathe AI, but I also loathe companies that lock down devices that you own. So I am enjoying them being fucked by their own devotion to AI.

DelegateVoid

@delegatevoid@mastodon.gamedev.place 2 hr. ago

@cwebber You're gonna love this one then: https://rea.tools/

REA

REA — Reverse Engineering for Your Coding Agent

Reverse engineer apps, binaries and browser behavior with your coding agent. Follow clear guides and try interactive examples with REA.

CMPRRSN RTFCT

@JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com 3 hr. ago

@cwebber Your fear is exactly my fear.

That the law only serves those who demand servants.

Jocelynephiliac :reclaimer:

@twipped@twipped.social 3 hr. ago

@cwebber it's kinda funny how our industry has been so dependent on the obfuscation side effect of compilers as a means of source protection.

Thinking about how so many attempts at packaging JS failed because they were easily reversible. Feels like the shoe is on the other foot, in a way.

Jan Lehnardt :couchdb:

@janl@narrativ.es 3 hr. ago

@cwebber in soviet russia, commons exploit you

mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 3 hr. ago

@cwebber as always "you're allowed to do the previously illegal thing but ONLY if you use the global warming machine" is the outcome I am most afraid of

Oblomov

@oblomov@snowfan.it 2 hr. ago

@mcc @cwebber I think a more likely outcome will be “you're allowed to do the previously illegal thing but only against the ones who don't have the resources to sue you”.

So, no difference in the end.