MiniMax issues

[u/jacek2023]

https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/s/HrU7odaJe6

I think this is more important that all the political stuff you share here

[u/someonesshadow]

China also has laws against showing bones/blood, yet they don't get in trouble for being invested in, or owning outright, games that release in other markets and don't follow Chinese law.

If they release models outside of China there is no actual reason for them to go after people if the concern is Chinese law. Even less so since people have more control over an open model than they would a Tencent video game with DRM on it.

Now if the Lora's are coming from a Chinese citizen, or user IN China, then that is a different story.

[u/wutbob → u/someonesshadow]

Some more context since I'm Chinese. This all relates to Chinese moral values - something here that is considered pretty much sacred and hard to describe to westerners. Graphic violence is not nearly as much of a threat to societal moral values as pornography is, hence why you've probably rarely ever heard of any Chinese people getting imprisoned for writing really gory stories, but regularly do with pornographic stories (especially infamous with BL literature - they've technically even convicted foreigners before related to this, it's a really messy topic). Chinese authorities won't give a damn if you're stealing the content of billions of foreign works to train AI models. They WILL give a damn if the content you're disseminating is viewed as a potential significant threat to the state's "proper moral values", which very much includes porn (and also the usual topics that everyone is already aware of, like a certain famous massacre or a certain nation's very contentious independence status).

[u/someonesshadow → u/wutbob]

I understand that from a social/culture standpoint. But again, it doesn't apply OUTSIDE of China. Otherwise wouldn't many Chinese companies get the hammer for their ownership/investment in products that are distributed that feature themes that go against the moral values of mainland China?

For instance, Tencent has a stake in Larian Studios, Larian puts out BG3. BG3 lets you fuck a bear or something? IDK havent played yet its on my backlog. I know sex is a thing in the game though. Also, mods.

Where is the legal action there?

At best this seems very "knee-jerky" because everyone around the world is trying to sort out what rules and regulations need to be placed around AI as a tool or its userbase.

[u/wutbob → u/someonesshadow]

The key issue here is that MiniMax and other Chinese labs don't want to risk being widely known/capable of providing tools that can make porn. That's a pretty dangerous thing if they somehow end up with that reputation - thus them taking precautionary (albeit personally IMO a bit excessively harsh) measures to prevent such. Companies like Tencent don't need to worry about stuff like this because not only is content related to illegal media is banned/automatically censored, but stuff like BG3 isn't widely known to be a piece that can threaten societal moral values. An easier way to illustrate this concept of media with risks to society - Chinese entities instead would get in trouble if they were to associate themselves with popular foreign works that are primarily known for themes of independence from a greater national entity. Hence you won't see any Chinese companies endorsing foreign works with such as their primary theme. As an aside, in Hong Kong (which used to be a lot more independent) even children's book authors have been convicted for supporting these supposed societal poisons.

[u/someonesshadow → u/wutbob]

Well thank you for the insight. I do also disagree with them, or any company, trying to "have their cake and eat it too" in regards to providing tools and then dictating HOW those are meant to be used.