Why open AI models?

Billionaire computer scientist David Siegel recalled his initial resistance to free and open source software, Now strongly supports in FORTUNE that the stakes are too high to let Artificial Intelligence become increasingly closed.

“In the 1980s, I had the opportunity to spend several years discussing free and open software, what we now call open source, with the movement’s founder, Richard Stallman . My office at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was next to his. Stallman’s position was that the source code of software should be free for anyone to use, learn from, and improve upon. Software embodies knowledge, he argued, and no one should lock up something so fundamental. Hiding software within a company was tantamount to hiding knowledge itself… What I had missed was that software was not just a commercial asset. It was a body of knowledge, and knowledge assets are stronger when shared. After about two years of intermittent discussions, Stallman convinced me that I was wrong.”

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“Now the AI ​​battle is the same — only bigger,” Siegel says.

“AI is software and it is increasingly closed. Cutting-edge models – the most advanced, cutting-edge AI systems – are being closed completely and the trend is accelerating. Viable open alternatives are rare.”

So, what should we do…?

“Yes, the cutting-edge models continue to get bigger and more expensive – this competition of equipment may well remain with the giants. But open-source AI doesn’t need to match their scale to be useful. Much of what the world needs probably doesn’t require the absolute limits. And where maintaining a reliable open option requires serious computational resources, this is the kind of public good worth paying for.

“What is missing is not a path but the will. Government, the private sector, and nonprofits should invest heavily in free and open-source AI – the way they once invested in open software: public computing grants for open research, corporate and philanthropic support for universities and nonprofits that do the work. A simple rule is needed: AI built with public money is open by definition.

"We've done this experiment before. We know how it ends. Let's not forget it."

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