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Heretic removes restrictions from language models

279 points · 111 comments · Bluestein

  1. Tepix · · focus · HN ↗
    Keep a close eye on abliterated and "heretic" open weight models. They will be outlawed first.
    1. roenxi · · focus · HN ↗
      It is not feasible. They never made much of an inroad against torrents and that is a much easier target than abliterated models. As the linked website shows; the process to abliterate a model can be as simple as

      pip install -U heretic-llm && heretic Qwen/Qwen3.5-4B

      let alone people just putting the weights up in a torrent. All assuming that someone even tried to ban abliterated models.

      1. Sayrus · · focus · HN ↗
        The torrents you are talking about are outlawed. Whether enforcement is working or not is another issue.
        1. galangalalgol · · focus · HN ↗
          I think that was the point being made? Outlawing something does nothing if enforcement is not feasible. The music and movie industries didn't crush torrents, they switched business models to streaming with prices being determined mostly by how much hassle was avoided by skipping the torrents.
          1. NewsaHackO · · focus · HN ↗
            I think a major difference is that while torrents are illegal, the main people enforcing it are copyright holders. I think the discussion would change if the government would label people who build/use/distribute "illegal" models as terrorists.
            1. goodmythical · · focus · HN ↗
              Torrents can't be illegal right now, can they? Maybe in China, but Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc all advertise the ability to recieve their ISOs via torrent and even seed the torrent in varying capacities.

              Do you really believe that all of these major non-profits are advertising, encouraging, and participating in the use of an illegal network protocol?

              Using any network protocol to violate copyright law on the other hand, is and has been illegal. But it's the violation of copyright, not the network protocol.

              Saying torrenting is illegal is like saying ftp is illegal.

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