Stop feeding knitting patterns into the theft machine!

Like the old lady I am, I cringe every time I hear someone say “Well, I asked ChatGPT…”

But when we’re talking about knitting patterns, that’s a whole new ballgame.

It’s no longer about “cringe” or my personal views on AI use (spoiler alert: it’s bad).

It’s about theft.

And if you are copying knitting patterns, in whole or in part, into ChatGPT or Claude or any other AI tool, you are feeding someone else’s intellectual property into the Intellectual Property Theft Machine.

NOT. OK.

AI has been built on the unethical—and usually downright illegal, but money talks—use of other people’s intellectual property without their permission.

And while we may not have understood that in the early days, we certainly know it now.

The AI tech bros have trained their tools on books, papers, articles, artwork, videos, and, yes, knitting patterns, from millions of authors and creators, without their consent and certainly without compensation, so that they can regurgitate that information back to you when you ask a question.

If a designer asks Claude to burp out half-assed written instructions for her chart or otherwise assist in creating a pattern, that’s her business. It’s her IP.

That does not mean it’s ok for you, the consumer, to feed a designer’s IP into the theft machine.

Not for translation. Not to rewrite it in your preferred style. Not because you don’t understand it.

Ask a friend. Ask your knitting group. Ask the designer. Re-write it yourself. Hire a translator.

AI has done irreparable damage to so many industries, not to mention the environment, while making the worst people we know even richer. It was created to solve the “problem” of paying humans for their work, full stop.

But even if all of that weren’t true, giving away someone else’s intellectual property is still wrong.

So please. Stop.