I'm with you on your first paragraph - unless we're doing some pioneering work, we learn it from somewhere.

But the possibility of decompiling means you don't have to have access to the source just so long as you can access the code is some form - including the generated executable.

The models were built upon the data, code, art, and texts stolen from a generation of internet users and artists, and from generations of writers.

Do you seriously believe that these companies which built themselves on theft would stop stealing once their first model was built?

If a single adobe programmer (or even employee, depending on how lax their internal security is) used a cloud-hosted LLM at work, you can be assured that whatever code and data that malware could access from their computer ended up being part of the next generation of that company's model, and eventually of any other's.

Even if they didn't, if any windows 11 computer had access to the code you can be certain it scrapped it and sent it home to be given to openAI and any other “AI” company willing to pay.

Thieves will steal. No LLM model ever started clean, and they only get filthier and filthier with time.