Navigating the Complexity of Open Source Licensing and Regulation in AI

There are few terms in the world of AI — if any — that invoke more of a reaction than a simple four-letter word: Open. Whether it’s industry debates over business models and the actual definition of open, or the US government actively discussing how to regulate open models, seemingly everyone has an opinion on what it means for AI models to be open. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

But to be fair, there’s good reason for this. In a world where many developers have come to expect open source tools at every level of the stack, the idea of powerful models locked behind enterprise licenses and corporate ethics can be disconcerting — especially for a technology as game-changing as AI promises to be. It’s a matter of who has the ability to innovate in the space, and whose release schedules and guardrails they’re beholden to.

This is why, back in February, a16z convened a panel of experts to discuss the state — and future — of open source AI models.

Featuring:

• Jim Zemlin (Executive Director, Linux Foundation)
• Mitchell Baker (Executive Chair, Mozilla Corp.)
• Percy Liang (Associate Professor, Stanford; Cofounder, Together AI)
• Anjney Midha (General Partner, a16z)
• Derrick Harris (Editorial Partner, a16z)

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