AI ethics & licensing
This course looks at where AI models get their abilities and what happens to the information developers give them. It covers the sources of training data and why public code still carries licenses such as MIT, GPL and Apache. It follows the Copilot litigation and related cases to show why code licensing remains unresolved. It then explains how pasted text reaches a vendor's servers, the risks of sharing proprietary code, how consumer and enterprise plans differ, and why an employer's AI usage policy matters.
What you'll learn
- ✓Where model training data comes from and why public code still carries licenses
- ✓Why the Copilot litigation and related cases leave code licensing unresolved
- ✓What happens to text you paste into an AI chat tool
- ✓The risks of sharing proprietary code or real customer data with a public tool
- ✓How consumer and enterprise plans differ on training and retention
- ✓Why to check your employer's AI usage policy before pasting anything sensitive
Where training data comes from
When an agentic tool from AI tools: introduction (Cursor & Antigravity) suggests scope :published, -> { where.not(published_at: nil) }, it produces that pattern because something like it appeared many times in its training material. Across the industry, that material is reported to include public…
Read the full lesson free →Curriculum
7 lessonsWhere training data comes from
Traces model suggestions to training material and explains why public code repositories still carry licenses and terms.
Why code licensing is unresolved, not settled
Follows the Copilot litigation and related cases to show why AI code licensing remains an open legal question.
Data privacy: what happens to what you paste
Explains that pasting text into an AI chat sends it to the vendor's servers under that account's terms.
Proprietary code in a public chat tool
Describes three risks of pasting proprietary code or customer data into a public AI chat tool.
Enterprise tools vs. public tools: what differs
Uses GitHub Copilot to compare how individual and enterprise plans handle training and retention of submitted code.
Your employer's AI policy: why it exists
Explains why a company AI usage policy exists and what to do before pasting or when none exists.
Putting it together: from training data to a daily habit
Connects training data, licensing, privacy, plan differences and company policy into one daily habit of checking first.