{"692240":{"#nid":"692240","#data":{"type":"news","title":"What Is Open\u2011Source AI? A Software Engineering Researcher\u00a0Explains","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv class=\u0022theconversation-article-body\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYou\u2019ve probably heard artificial intelligence models described as \u201copen\u201d or \u201cclosed.\u201d These are not descriptions of the model\u2019s personality. Large language model AIs like the one under the hood of ChatGPT don\u2019t have actual personalities, despite appearances.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe labels refer to whether all of the information about how an AI model works is publicly available and the model can be modified, or whether the model\u2019s developer keeps its inner workings secret and the model itself private property.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EOpen-Source Software\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe concept of open-source software originated in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/os-sci.com\/blog\/our-blog-posts-1\/the-history-of-open-source-132\u0022\u003Efree software movement\u003C\/a\u003E of the 1980s and \u201990s. The movement\u2019s founders believed that software creators and users had the right to \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/os-sci.com\/blog\/our-blog-posts-1\/four-freedoms-of-open-source-42\u0022\u003Efour freedoms\u003C\/a\u003E\u201d \u2013 to run the program, to study and modify it, to distribute copies of the original, and to distribute copies of subsequently modified versions. The fundamental requirement was that the source code \u2013 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchapparchitecture\/definition\/source-code\u0022\u003Ethe basic instructions\u003C\/a\u003E \u2013 for a program should be made available.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the late 1990s, software developers associated with projects such as the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/home-and-office\/networking\/how-netscape-lives-on-30-years-of-shaping-the-web-open-source-and-business\/\u0022\u003ENetscape web browser\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linux.com\/what-is-linux\/\u0022\u003ELinux operating system\u003C\/a\u003E coined and promoted the term \u201copen source\u201d to refer to these ideals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the evolving movement, certain organizations developed open-source licenses that specified how a particular piece of source code could be used and distributed, including the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gnu.org\/licenses\/gpl-3.0.en.html\u0022\u003EGnu General Public License\u003C\/a\u003E, Apache License, MIT License and the Berkeley Software Distribution. Each type of license also specified any potential restrictions on how software patents applied to the source code.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EOpen Source or Open Weight?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe open-source idea has risen to prominence again in the past several years as artificial intelligence large language models have surged, notably OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, released in 2022. Developers first train new models on large datasets, then deploy the models for use by other people.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cfigure\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe width=\u0022440\u0022 height=\u0022260\u0022 src=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gmz24X86-5E?wmode=transparent\u0026amp;start=0\u0022 frameborder=\u00220\u0022 allowfullscreen=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cfigcaption\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022caption\u0022\u003EOpen-source artificial intelligence is explained in two minutes.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeta was one of the first large companies to release an open-source large language model, called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/10\/06\/meta-llama-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-open-generative-ai-model\/\u0022\u003ELLaMa\u003C\/a\u003E. The company released LLaMa on Feb. 24, 2023, and made available the \u201cinference\u201d source code \u2013 the instructions that run the model. And it released the so-called weights, the encoded knowledge the model learned during training. However, open-source organizations such as the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/opensource.org\/\u0022\u003EOpen Source Initiative\u003C\/a\u003E have stated that the LLaMa licensing guidelines prohibit commercial reuse, which the initiative maintains is not truly open source.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther companies have released \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/opensource.org\/ai\/open-weights\u0022\u003Eopen weight\u201d models\u003C\/a\u003E, such as DeepSeek from DeepSeek AI and Qwen from Alibaba. The models have less restrictive terms for reuse, and the AI community has adopted them rapidly. Still, many developers believe that a true open-source AI model must not only include the source code and weights but also the data that is used to train the model.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EA Lot to Open Up\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Open Source Initiative\u2019s definition of a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/opensource.org\/ai\/open-source-ai-definition\u0022\u003Efully open-source AI model\u003C\/a\u003E includes the training data as a key element. Some developers wonder, however, how feasible it is to distribute the enormous datasets required.\u003C!-- Below is The Conversation\u0027s page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --\u003E\u003Cimg style=\u0022border-color:!important;border-style:none;box-shadow:none !important;margin:0 !important;max-height:1px !important;max-width:1px !important;min-height:1px !important;min-width:1px !important;opacity:0 !important;outline:none !important;padding:0 !important;\u0022 src=\u0022https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/236668\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\u0022 alt=\u0022The Conversation\u0022 width=\u00221\u0022 height=\u00221\u0022 referrerpolicy=\u0022no-referrer-when-downgrade\u0022\u003E\u003C!-- End of code. If you don\u0027t see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis article is republished from \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/theconversation.com\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Conversation\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E under a Creative Commons license. Read the \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/theconversation.com\/what-is-open-source-ai-a-software-engineering-researcher-explains-236668\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003Eoriginal article\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"full_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe labels refer to whether all of the information about how an AI model works is publicly available and the model can be modified, or whether the model\u2019s developer keeps its inner workings secret and the model itself private property.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The labels refer to whether all of the information about how an AI model works is publicly available and the model can be modified, or whether the model\u2019s developer keeps its inner workings secret and the model itself private property."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2026-09-03 13:08:09","changed_gmt":"2026-09-03 13:13:32","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-07-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-07-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681056":{"id":"681056","type":"image","title":"Open-source AI models allow anyone to read their inner workings like a book. Utamaru Kido\/Moment via Getty Images","body":"\u003Cp\u003EOpen-source AI models allow anyone to read their inner workings like a book. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/photo\/books-royalty-free-image\/957583536\u0022\u003EUtamaru Kido\/Moment via Getty Images\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1788441082","gmt_created":"2026-09-03 13:11:22","changed":"1788441082","gmt_changed":"2026-09-03 13:11:22","alt":"Open-source AI models allow anyone to read their inner workings like a book. Utamaru Kido\/Moment via Getty Images","file":{"fid":"265407","name":"file-20260721-69-wu09rg.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/file-20260721-69-wu09rg.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/file-20260721-69-wu09rg.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":143489,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/03\/file-20260721-69-wu09rg.jpg?itok=oExsCwuf"}}},"media_ids":["681056"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/what-is-open-source-ai-a-software-engineering-researcher-explains-236668`","title":"Read This Article on The Conversation"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"194974","name":"go-theconversation"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Ch5\u003EAuthor:\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jeffrey-young-1631845\u0022\u003EJeffrey Young\u003C\/a\u003E, Principal Research Scientist, Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/georgia-institute-of-technology-1310\u0022\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch5\u003EMedia Contact:\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShelley Wunder-Smith\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:shelley.wunder-smith@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eshelley.wunder-smith@research.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}