“Copyleft” in the context of GenAI
Musing on Free Software 2.0, sort of.
The real open source AI?
There is a lot of discussion going on about “open source AI” these days. While self-proclaimed open source AI that is not clear in meaning is rampant, there is also a movement to define open source AI properly. The most prominent example is probably the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID), led by the Open Source Initiative. I recently attended the discussion in Paris the other day and was very inspired.
At that time a question came to my mind. Is there a concept in the field of AI implementation that is equivalent to copyleft?
Copyleft is a concept claimed by some open source licenses, such as the GNU GPL. If you modify and distribute source code for which that license claims copyleft, you are required to publish the modified portions under the same terms as the original. Since it is impossible to make any part of the code under copyleft “closed” (i.e. proprietary), this is a form of licensing that gives more power to the licensee than to the licensor and strongly encourages the sharing and publication of collaborative work products. Since claiming copyleft is not a prerequisite for being open source (or free/libre software), it is also a “strong” form of the open source concept (as with the Open Source Definition, a “weak” or…
