Driving the global conversation about “Open Source AI”

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) continues the work of exploring complexities surrounding the development and use of artificial intelligence in Deep Dive: AI – Defining Open Source AI, with the goal of collaboratively establishing a clear and defensible definition of “Open Source AI.” OSI is bringing together global experts to establish a shared set of principles that can recreate a permissionless, pragmatic and simplified collaboration for AI practitioners, similar to what the Open Source Definition has done.

Building community momentum and support

We’ve gathered a significant amount of support from groups all over the world. Most recently, Google has increased its financial commitments to support this urgent initiative. Timothy Jordan, Director of Open Source and Developer Relations at Google, stated “Google is excited to continue our support of the Open Source Initiative and, more broadly, of open source developers. We look forward to the open collaboration involved in drafting the Definition of Open Source AI and hope it will help accelerate innovation in this space.” 

For Catherine Stihler, executive director of Creative Commons “It’s critical to develop shared definitions about what it means to contribute to the commons, including through open source. The participatory process organized by the OSI is an important way to find the common values shared by the widest variety of organizations and people around the world.” 

While Mark Collier, COO, OpenInfra Foundation said that “The next decade of open infrastructure will be built hand-in-hand with AI. The OpenInfra Foundation and the community engaged with its projects, including OpenStack, Kata Containers, and StarlingX, is focused on defining how AI will play its role. We’re excited to participate in OSI’s process to find—as soon as possible—a common baseline and definition that all of us can rely on to further the values of ‘open’ to the AI field.”  

Other organizations, like GitHub, Amazon, OSS Capital, Weaviate and Sourcegraph also believe in this effort and are supporting the process with generous donations. OSI also welcomes individual donations.

“Deep Dive: Defining Open Source AI” webinars

After gathering a group of people from Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, Internet Archive, Linux Foundation Europe, OSS Capital, and the OSI board in June 2023 in San Francisco, OSI is kicking off our webinar series to hear from more experts.

The presentations series identifies foundational principles of “Open” in the context of AI and will contribute to the conversations and collective thinking. The topics were selected for their focus on precise problem areas in AI and offer clear suggestions for solutions based on their expertise in many areas. 

Webinars will be held Tuesday through Thursday between September 26 and October 12 (daily schedule coming soon). Each session will include a live Q&A with attendees. Registration is free and single registration gains you access to all webinars in the series. 

Comment on the Draft of the “Open Source AI Definition”
A draft of the Open Source AI Definition will be available for public discussion at All Things Open, on October 17. Interested parties can review the full schedule of the global drafting and review process.