Statement: The Worst Person You Know is Right on Open Source AI

This morning, Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500 word manifesto filled with ridiculous claims and self-serving language. It also happened to promote the importance of open source AI. While Fight for the Future almost never agrees with Zuckerberg, and has worked to destroy Meta’s surveillance capitalist business structure, we unfortunately have to agree with him when it comes to defending open source and decentralization. We don’t, however, share his rosy vision of the world he and his fellow tech bros are manifesting. Open source AI is, in fact, vital for defending against a future in which oligarchs control everything.

The following can be attributed to Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at Fight for the Future.

“Mark Zuckerberg is annoyingly out of touch on his best day and downright evil on his worst, but he is right about the importance of open source AI and the perils of centralization. Everyone needs to have access to capable and open source AI systems, as much to defend ourselves as benefit ourselves. We are living in a world in which AI can be tasked with breaking electronic systems, like voting systems and benefits infrastructure, and so we need to be able to understand and counter those attacks. We are looking at a world in which AI can be used to manipulate us, profile us, and cheat us, so we need to be able to understand these AI systems to recognize when this is happening. Yes, AI may provide benefits in specific contexts, but people need choice and the ability to examine and control the AI systems they use.

Unfortunately, Zuckerberg’s manifesto is also ultimately self-serving. If everyone that chooses to use AI is running a Meta designed AI system, even if it’s fully open source, then we will have lost. Zuckerberg is probably running the Google Android play—using free and open source licensing to quickly command the market, and then layering in Meta-controlled aspects that will keep the public tethered to his interests. Open source AI needs to be supported beyond these corporate interests. We, unlike Zuckerberg, hope for as much competition as possible.”