The New Stack Podcast The Linux Foundation In The Age Of AI
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Sep 2, 2025 Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, delves into the fragmented world of open source AI. He discusses the shift from foundational to open-weight models and emphasizes the need for a unified structure while valuing innovation. Zemlin views the industry's challenges regarding model transparency and the costs of developing frontier AI models with a pragmatic lens. He also highlights the growing open-source culture in China and the impacts of global regulations on the open source community, underscoring the fine balance between scale and agility.
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AI Stack Is Layered And Open-Source Driven
- The AI ecosystem has distinct layers: training, inference, and emerging agent stacks built on open source.
- Open source tooling (like PyTorch) underpins training while open-weight models and inference projects push open AI forward.
Inference And Agents Are Becoming First-Class
- An inference stack and agentic layer are now emerging with open-source projects enabling deployment and reasoning.
- Most of this runs on cloud infrastructure and often in Kubernetes environments.
Avoid Forcing One Big AI Foundation Now
- Don't rush to force a single umbrella foundation for AI while the technology and communities are still forming.
- Let projects grow organically and provide neutral governance only where it helps without stifling innovation.