However, there are concerns about the risks of open-source AI, including its potential misuse in disinformation campaigns or falling into the wrong hands. The debate has become increasingly public, with Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, criticizing OpenAI, Google, and startup Anthropic for lobbying to write rules that benefit their high-performing AI models. Meanwhile, governments are also grappling with the issue. U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered further study into open models, while the European Union is debating provisions that could exempt certain free and open-source AI components from rules affecting commercial models.
Key takeaways:
- Facebook parent Meta and IBM have launched a new group called the AI Alliance that advocates for an 'open science' approach to AI development, which is at odds with rivals Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.
- Open-source AI involves building software in which the code is free or widely accessible for anyone to examine, modify and build upon. However, there are concerns about the potential dangers of making powerful AI systems publicly accessible.
- Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, criticized OpenAI, Google and startup Anthropic for what he described as 'massive corporate lobbying' to write the rules in a way that benefits their high-performing AI models and could concentrate their power over the technology's development.
- U.S. President Joe Biden's executive order on AI described open models with the highly technical name of 'dual-use foundation models with widely available weights' and said they needed further study due to potential benefits to innovation, but also substantial security risks.