Tech giants stay divided on AI’s future as an ‘open-source’

Tech executives have stated clearly that artificial intelligence regulations are necessary, but they are also actively pushing for laws that will benefit them.

Although tech executives have been outspoken in their support of the need for artificial intelligence regulation, they are also actively advocating for the new laws to be favorable to them.

Facebook parent company Meta and IBM formed the AI Alliance on Tuesday, a new organization that opposes competitors Google, Microsoft, and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI by promoting an "open science" approach to AI development.

The question of whether to develop AI in a way that makes the underlying technology broadly available is one that divides these two opposing factions, the open and the closed. The issue revolves around safety, but it also concerns who will benefit from AI advancements.

Darío Gil, a senior vice president at IBM who oversees its research division, stated that open advocates support a strategy that is "not proprietary and closed."

The phrase "open-source" refers to a long-standing technique in software development where the source code is freely or publicly available for anyone to review, alter, and expand upon.

According to Gil, the AI Alliance is assembling to state, quite simply, that open innovation, including open source and open technology, and the free and open interchange of scientific ideas will serve as the foundation upon which the future of AI will be created.