The future of open source will be messy [Video]

Meta and other leading makers of ‘open’ AI models aren’t willing to cede policing of the term ‘open source’ to the Open Source Initiative. And developers don’t seem to care.

Credit: rangizzz / Shutterstock

Open Source Initiative (OSI) chief Stefano Maffulli says Meta is “bullying” the industry on the concept of open source. The Economist more colorfully characterizes the dispute as “bare-it-all purists … confronting Meta, the social-media giant controlled by a mankini-clad Mark Zuckerberg.” It’s all much ado about something as AI proves exceptionally difficult to stuff into a decades-old definition of the term open source, which had already been failing to keep up with cloud.

How important is Meta’s steadfast refusal to show obeisance to the OSI’s hitherto iron grip on open source naming rights? It’s both more important and less important than you might think.