AI's Dual Path: Non-Profit vs. Commercial Approaches

It has been a wild few weeks and eventful few months in AI: DeepSeek, OpenAI, Stargate, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Elon Musk, and more.

In all of this, there's a heightened focus on what it takes to train AI models and the importance of open-source AI. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we get insights from Ali Farhadi, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), the Seattle-based nonprofit that has been innovating in open-source AI since long before it was popular.

"If the U.S. wants to maintain its edge ... we have only one way, and that is to promote open approaches, promote open-source solutions," Farhadi says, reflecting on the past few months. "Because no matter how many dollars you're investing in an ecosystem, without communal, global efforts, you're not going to be as fast." 

Related Coverage and Links: 

• Allen Institute for AI's new open-source iOS AI app runs on-device for secure, private, offline use
• Allen Institute for AI challenges DeepSeek on key benchmarks with big new open-source AI model
• Allen Institute for AI’s new model points to items in images, aims to make bigger point in industry
• New York Times: An Industry Insider Drives an Open Alternative to Big Tech’s A.I.
• Ken Yeung, "The AI Economy" newsletter: Ai2: The AI House That Paul Allen Built
• Ai2 Blog: OLMoE, meet iOS

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