Microsoft has claimed that something like 30% of the code for Windows is AI-generated. (I have not verified that they even said that, maybe that’s totally fake.) Last i checked AI-generated stuff cannot be copyrighted. Does this mean that significant portions of Windows are un-copyrightable, and MacroSlop couldn’t do a damn thing if someone leaked those parts?
And then, reservations about including slop in a software project aside, what could this mean for things like ReactOS? They’ve been careful to avoid including any MS-owned code, but nobody owns slop code.
They’re probably safe until some governmental organization builds up enough motivation and money to try and investigate it. And given the reaming they gave the IRS I doubt anyone is up for it.
Beyond that, I can’t imagine the sheer legal nightmare it would be, given that MS will hire the best fucking lawyers money can buy. How do you quantify how much is AI generated and how much isn’t? How much involvement of AI makes it “AI code”? You could spend years in court arguing about where that particular line is.
It’s a fun hypothetical, but unlikely to matter to any real degree, at least for a company their size. Maybe it could be used against some startup making dumb public statements.