Overview
Christopher Suarez and Bill Toth authored an article which first appeared in the American Bar Association’s Landslide Magazine, "The Future of "Open Source" in the Age of AI." The article explores the future of open-source software in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). With AI's proliferation, the principles and licensing challenges of open-source software become crucial. Open-source software, accessible to the public for modification and distribution, contrasts with closed-source software, which remains proprietary. The piece discusses how open-source AI can drive innovation but also create licensing complexities, particularly with different licenses ranging from permissive to copyleft. As AI models include source code, training data, and model parameters, traditional open-source licenses may not fully apply, leading to legal uncertainties. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has defined criteria for open-source AI, emphasizing transparency in source code, training data, and model weights. However, many prominent AI models do not meet these criteria, sparking debates about true open-source AI.
Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 3, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
