Open Source
-
A Forgotten Manifesto: Mozilla Betrays Its Own Values on Open Source AI
The Mozilla Foundation (MoFo), “a global nonprofit dedicated to keeping the Internet a public resource that is open and accessible to all,” proudly proclaims “we’re reclaiming the internet, building trustworthy AI, and holding tech companies accountable”. And yet, when the Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently released their contentious Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) — which…
-
Open Source Under Siege: The Internal Threat We Didn’t See Coming
This wasn’t a post I wanted to write, but Friday nights are where bad news goes to die, so here we are. It’s now been two months since I wrote the following letter to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) regarding their (then-upcoming) Open Source AI Definition (OSAID), which controversially did not require the source (i.e.,…
-
Meta says Meta’s Llama models are NOT Open Source but Open Weight
In response to the news that Harvard Is Releasing a Massive Free AI Training Dataset Funded by OpenAI and Microsoft, Yann LeCun’s VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta had this to say: Every institution, library, foundation, cultural group, and government around the world that possesses cultural content should make it available for training ***free…
-
The OSI has killed its Open Source community with censorship
The Open Source Initiative (OSI), self-declared “steward” of Open Source, has finally succeeded in killing its community dead with heavy-handed censorship, which is a weird thing for an organisation to do that’s “actively involved in Open Source community-building”. From moderating, closing, and forking posts to outright banning members, it seems no tool of repression is…
-
Defining Mandatory Components for AI Systems Seeking Digital Public Good (DPG) Recognition
I have made this submission to the community discussion on the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA)‘s Proposal: Defining Mandatory Components for AI Systems Seeking Digital Public Good (DPG) Recognition
-
Open-Source Licensing for AI presentation at DevFest 2024
Earlier this month Wes Turner, a Senior Lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, had A Quick Look at the New Open Source AI Definition from the OSI at DevFest 2024, a Google Developer Group (GDG) conference focused this year on Responsible AI. As you can see, like many before him (including myself) he was discombobulated by…
-
Beware the Balancing Act in Open Source AI
One thing I find LLMs particularly useful for is reading between the lines in a structured way. The Balancing Act in The Atlantic just popped up in my feed and is not-at-all-obviously posted (and paid for) by Google. It contains a lot of motherhood and apple pie, allaying fears by claiming today’s LLMs only provide…
-
Openness vs Completeness: Data Dependencies and Open Source AI
Four Freedoms of Free Software For those of you new to the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) party, these creative works are deliberately made available by their authors under licenses that protect the “four essential freedoms” of free (as in freedom, not as in beer) software, allowing users to: These four freedoms are implemented…
-
Fork you and the Open Source AI Definition you rode in on…
Forking is the latest hobby horse of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), so let’s flog this dead horse too: “An Open Source AI machine is one that the people can meaningfully fork without having to ask for permission.” — Open Source Initiative (OSI) “Indeed! Pity many don’t grasp this very basic concept.” — OSI Board…
-
Open Source AI: Won’t somebody please think of the children?
We must be nearing the end of this sorry saga of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)’s Open Source AI Definition (OSAID), because we’ve reached the “Oh, won’t somebody please think of the children” stage at The Linux Foundation Member Summit, which is essentially a public admission that you’ve lost the debate. Specifically, their logical fallacy…