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Re: [NonGNU ELPA] New package: llm


From: Jim Porter
Subject: Re: [NonGNU ELPA] New package: llm
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2023 19:59:15 -0700

On 8/27/2023 7:32 PM, Andrew Hyatt wrote:
After following Jim Porter's suggestion above, here is the new function, and you can see the advice we're giving in the docstring:

(cl-defgeneric llm-nonfree-message-info (provider)
   "If PROVIDER is non-free, return info for a warning.
This should be a cons of the name of the LLM, and the URL of the
terms of service.

If the LLM is free and has no restrictions on use, this should
return nil. Since this function already returns nil, there is no
need to override it."
   (ignore provider)
   nil)

For what it's worth, I was thinking about having the default be the opposite: warn users by default, since we don't really know if an LLM provider is free unless the Elisp code indicates it. (Otherwise, it could simply mean the author of that provider forgot to override 'llm-nonfree-message-info'.) In other words, assume the worst by default. :) That said, if everyone else thinks this isn't an issue, I won't stamp my feet about it.

As for the docstring, I see that many models use ordinary software licenses, such as the Apache license. That could make it easier for us to define the criteria for a libre provider: is the model used by the provider available under a license the FSF considers a free software license?[1] (For LLM providers that you use by making a web request, we could also expect that all the code for their web API is libre too. However, that code is comparatively uninteresting, and so long as you could get the model to use on a self-hosted system[2], I don't see a need to warn the user.)

(Also, if you prefer to avoid having to say '(ignore provider)', you can also prefix 'provider' with an underscore. That'll make the byte compiler happy.)

[1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html

[2] At least, in theory. A user might not have enough computing power to use the model in practice, but I don't think that matters for this case.



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