- For developers, Stack Overflow is a vital resource.
- Over the years, the Q&A platform has helped them overcome the ups and downs of programming.
- Concerns are now being raised after OpenAI struck a deal to use its data to train ChatGPT.
You can bet that most developers have turned to Stack Overflow at some point in their careers.
Since 2008, the site has served as a nearly indispensable question-and-answer resource for technology professionals trying to find solutions to programming problems, improve their practical knowledge, or simply connect with others navigating the software business.
According to Stack Overflow, a new question is asked on the site, on average, every 14 seconds, with almost 60 million questions and answers tallied to date. In 2021, the company was acquired by European investment group Prosus for US$1.8 billion.
This makes it a hugely valuable feature – and one that developers will understandably be willing to be quite protective about.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that some Stack Overflow users started raising hell after the wealth of information they’ve contributed to the site over the years became the target of a data-hungry company: OpenAI.
OpenAI agreement generates controversy
On Monday, ChatGPT maker and Stack Overflow announced a partnership to provide OpenAI users and their customers with “the accurate, verified database that AI tools need” to solve their problems.
OpenAI noted that it would “reveal validated technical knowledge from Stack Overflow directly into ChatGPT” to give users “easy access to trusted, attributed, accurate, and highly technical knowledge and code backed by millions of developers” on the nearly 16-year-old site . site.
For OpenAI, the deal is obvious.
Its AI models, like GPT-4, benefit enormously from being trained on as much data as possible. If trained on highly technical and specialized data like that found on Stack Overflow, models will perform better when responding to requests from ChatGPT users.
Stack Overflow also seeks to benefit from the partnership by using OpenAI models in the development of OverflowAI. The product, launched in July 2023, was the company’s attempt to integrate generative AI capabilities into its services.
However, some dedicated Stack Overflow developers have begun to express their frustrations.
On Mastodon, an open-source social media service, a Stack Overflow user shared that he tried to delete his “top-rated answers” on the site to protest the OpenAI deal.
“Stack Overflow doesn’t allow you to delete questions that have accepted answers and lots of upvotes because that would remove knowledge from the community,” wrote the user named Ben. “So instead I changed my top-rated responses to a message of protest.”
Within an hour, the user said his attempt to change the top-rated answers was reversed, with his account subsequently suspended for seven days.
A screenshot of the Stack Overflow response, shared by Ben, read: “You have recently removed or defaced content in your posts. Please note that once you post a question or answer on this site, those posts become part of the collective efforts of others who have also contributed to that content.”
Ben continued on Mastodon, suggesting that this was “a reminder that anything you post on any of these platforms can and will be used for profit” and that “it’s only a matter of time before all your Discord messages, Twitter etc. shaved, inserted into a model and sold back to you.”
Meanwhile, on the Stack Overflow user forum, another European-based user asked “where is the opt-out option so that my answers are not used by OpenAI?” while also raising the question of whether European Union data privacy rules would allow them to remove their responses from the site.
Users also weighed in on the X deal.
Emily Bender, a professor at the University of Washington, criticized the partnership on Thursday, writing: “I would like to remind the world that you really don’t need to go to bed with OpenAI. StackOverflow was a beacon of resistance, but I guess ultimately, its principles were for sale.”
In a post on Wednesday, Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer newsletter, wrote: “What is your reaction as a developer when you notice your efforts to help other developers with their problems (by answering questions on StackOverflow) now? Is there a way for StackOverflow to sell this data to OpenAI to train ChatGPT to perform better?”
Stack Overflow did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s clear that people are upset about this deal, but it’s important to note that this isn’t the first time that OpenAI’s use of third-party data has raised concerns.
The company faces several lawsuits from creators, such as artists and authors, who claim that OpenAI is using their work without permission to make a profit.
With Stack Overflow and OpenAI now working together publicly, developers will have to consider how comfortable they feel with ChatGPT using its insights.
Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, has a global agreement to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands’ reports.
Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, has a global agreement to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands’ reports.
