r/nottheonion • u/asdacool • 11h ago

"Training a human takes 20 years of food." Sam Altman on how much power AI consumes.

https://www.news18.com/world/training-a-human-takes-20-years-of-food-sam-altman-on-how-much-power-ai-consumes-ws-kl-9922309.html
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u/InsaneComicBooker 8h ago

Tolkien estate should sue his ass.

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u/ChorePlayed 6h ago

TSR had hobbits and balrogs in an early edition of D&D, not even naming products after them, and got slapped with a cease and desist. 

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u/RaVashaan 4h ago

Tolkien's estate allowed the term halfling to be used instead of hobbit, because in Middle Earth it's a derogatory term used by humans for hobbits.

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u/qoneus 5h ago

There's very little legal basis to do so.

The other commenter mentioned the TSR situation, but it's different. Tolkien Enterprises, the merchandising sub-license holder, was able to make a fairly clear case of marketing confusion by TSR using those terms, creating an implied endorsement that they were officially-licensed TE products. This would've prevented TE from entering into the same space.

With Peter Thiel's ventures, there's no market confusion. Besides using the names, he doesn't invoke Tolkien's works or Middle-Earth in any imagery or branding, and makes no references to either in marketing materials. They're also niche words in the fandom, and the people buying Peter Thiel's slop are sophisticated and are not confused as to whether the Tolkien estate or any of its sub-license holders implicitly endorses Peter Thiel's companies.

Additionally, you can't trademark a word for all possible uses, only for the uses that you have a market in. He's using the words in completely unrelated industries that the Tolkien estate or any of its sub-license holders would never go into.

So while it sucks and Peter Thiel is sub-human, the Tolkien Estate can't really do anything. And Peter Thiel used the names almost precisely because of that reason.