2024/03/11 by Tim Räz, Räz, Tim · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Copyright and Intellectual Property #Digital Rights Management and Security #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Intellectual Property Law
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2403.06593
openalex publication_date 2024/03/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently, watermarking schemes for large language models (LLMs) have been proposed to distinguish text generated by machines and by humans. The present paper explores philosophical, political, and ethical ramifications of implementing and using watermarking schemes. A definition of authorship that includes both machines (LLMs) and humans is proposed to serve as a backdrop. It is argued that private watermarks may provide private companies with sweeping rights to determine authorship, which is incompatible with traditional standards of authorship determination. Then, possible ramifications of the so-called entropy dependence of watermarking mechanisms are explored. It is argued that entropy may vary for different, socially salient groups. This could lead to group dependent rates at which machine generated text is detected. Specifically, groups more interested in low entropy text may face the challenge that it is harder to detect machine generated text that is of interest to them.