Dear OSI community,
I know it seems like it’s all any of us are hearing about lately, but I need a minute to talk about Open Source and AI.
Every model making headlines today, open or closed, sits on top of Open Source code, runs on Open Source infrastructure, and is based on openly shared research. That’s not sentiment, it’s just the history of how we got here. None of this exists without the Open Source community. So when I read that Washington is weighing trade block-lists and executive orders aimed at Open Weights and Open Source AI, I don’t read it as a technology story. I read it as a question about whether the commons this community built is going to be treated as a powerful strength we need to protect, or a potential threat we need to deter.
We’ve spent this year making the case that it’s the former, in our comments to the White House, in our work with the G7 on its Vision on AI Openness, and in conversations with our global community. The argument isn’t complicated: openness doesn’t check passports, restricting American access to Open Weights and Open Source AI doesn’t make them disappear, it just makes us less able to study and secure the ones the rest of the world keeps using. And the people who’d pay for that mistake first aren’t the big labs in the headlines, they’re the startups and small teams who rely on being able to see, modify, and run what they depend on.
I wrote more about this in a blog post recently, as did our Open Source AI fellow Gabriel Toscano. As a member of this community, the OSI will keep fighting to defend Open Source. If you’re weighing in on this debate yourself, or just want to talk it through, my office hours are always open.
Warm regards,
Duane O’Brien
Executive Director, OSI
News from the OSI #
Openness Made All of This Possible Every AI system in the headlines today, whether proprietary or Open Source, exists because researchers shared their work openly. That openly shared research produced Open Source software: the frameworks used to train these models, the libraries used to evaluate them, the operating systems, orchestration layers, and inference engines used to run them.
Other highlights
The AI Era Arcs Toward OpennessEU AI Act and CRA: Timelines and ResourcesPreliminary agenda announced for the Open Technology Research Symposium 2026
Podcast and video
Understanding Open Source Law and AI Impacts in Modern Software Development(Carlo Piana)POSAIS 2026 – Round Table : “Open Models, Trusted AI: How Open Source Changes the Research Game”(Gaël Blondele)
OSI in the news
Open weights vs. closed: An AI civil war’s afoot, and the stakes are existential(ZDNet)‘Open-Washing’ Is Everywhere in AI. Four Criteria Cut Through It(Tech Policy Press)G7 releases vision paper on openness in AI(Open Source Observatory)
News from OSI affiliates and community #
News from OSI affiliates and partners
AI2:Who gets to understand AI?** Center for Open Science**:OSF Changes: A Note to Users** Common European data space**:Making Public AI reality: How cultural heritage can lead the wayCreative Commons:Introducing the CC Open Heritage Companion** Creative Commons**:Attribution in the Age of AI** Current AI**:Join the AI Potluck** Data Rescue Project**:Open for Community Comment: Coalition for Resilient Research Data Infrastructure (CRRDI) Strategic PlanDPGA:Navigating the Paradox of Open: New Resources for Defending Data and Content DPGs in the Age of AIDrupal Association:Tiffany Farriss to lead the DAEclipse Foundation:Eclipse Foundation 2026 annual Community report** Eclipse Foundation**:Eclipse Foundation and OWASP Join Forces to Strengthen Open Source Security and CRA ReadinessETH AI Center:Apertus 1.5: Building the next generation of open AI infrastructureETSI:ETSI launches approval process for 17 European Standards supporting the Cyber Resilience ActEuropean Commission:Commission publishes new guidance to support timely Cyber Resilience Act implementationEuropean Commission:Commission starts enforcing AI Act rules and new transparency requirements on 2 AugustEuropean Open Source Academy:Summer School 2026** FSFE**:A quarter-century of Software Freedom: the FSFE turns 25** ITU**:Trustworthy GENIE.AI as an open source foundation for public sector genAIJava community:The Java Story | The Official Documentary** Linux Foundation**:Linux Foundation Announces Intent to Launch Open Health Stack Software Foundation to Advance Open Source Digital Health InnovationLinux Foundation:Open Models and Open Weights Are Foundational to Secure AIMozilla Foundation:Is Open-Source AI Really the Dangerous Path?ODSI:Launch of Open Digital Sovereignty Initiative** OpenForum Europe**:From Recommendations to Actions** OpenSSF**:Built to Last: Understanding the European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)** Software Heritage**:The world’s first government open source insights report launches at UN Open Source WeekSoftware Stewardship Lab:A Research Lab for Open Source** The Document Foundation**:The characteristics of a truly open document standard formatTODO Group:Lessons from the Industry’s Leading OSPOs
News from community members
MongoDB v. FerretDB: When Open Source Compatibility Becomes a Patent Risk(Shuji Sado)License-only versus Stewarded Open Source(Dries Buytaert)Why Open Source Matters for AI(Tim O’Reilly)Open-source is NOT the same as open-weight(Gary Marcus)Kimi K3: The open-weights escalation(Nathan Lambert)Distillation Is Not IP Theft(Matt White)Data Sovereignty Doesn’t Mean Data Isolationism(Luca Belli)What Agentic AI Asks of Open Source Strategy: A New Layer for OSPOs(Ana Jiménez Santamaría)Linus Torvalds puts his foot down, tells anti-AI programmers to ‘fork it’(Steven Vaughan-Nichols)Defining Open Source AI: Principles, Perspectives, and Practical Challenges(Alfonso Cancellara)Battle Royale: Who Owns Intelligence?(Taunya Brown)
News from sponsors
Code for the People(Automattic)$100 million for open source: A milestone built by the community(GitHub)Adapting open source practices to an AI-first world: A retrospective on 2025(Google)Open Weights and American AI Leadership(Microsoft)
Research and white papers #
Open Source AI
Europe and Open Source AI: Beyond Licenses(AI and Society Institute)The state of open source AI(Mozilla)Unpacking Open Source Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Framework for Openness in Foundation Models(Communications of the ACM)A Sovereign, Open-Source Foundation Model for German and English(Soofi)Perspectives for Open Source AI: Regulatory approaches of the EU, U.S., and China(i-lex – Journal of Law, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence)The Open-Source Advantage in Large Language Models(AI and Ethics)Innovation Accelerator or “Venus Flytrap” Strategy? The Antitrust Perspective on Open Source AI Regulation(International Journal of Digital Law and Governance)Open-source AI 101: the battle for the future of AI(Deutsche Bank Research Institute)
Open Source Software
Open practices across science, software, education and other domains(Nature Human Behaviour)Advancing Digital Government through Open Source Indicators(Journal of Systems and Software)Open Source Software: Security Principles and Practices(CISA)What comes after FOSS?(Leiden University / Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund)
Dashboards
AI Potluck(Current AI)LicenseAtlas(Moming Duan)License Review Tracker(Moming Duan)Artifacts Hub(Interconnects)Adoption Dashboard(Interconnects)
Events #
Upcoming events
Open Source Congress and Stakeholder Day(September 22-23, Halifax)Open Source Summit Europe(October 7-9, Prague)All Things Open(October 18-20, Raleigh)Open Technology Research Symposium(October 26-27, Barcelona)Mozilla Festival(October 28-30, Barcelona)
Check the top 50+ Open Source conferences of 2026 that the OSI is tracking, including events that intersect with AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and policy.
Thanks to our sponsors #
New sponsors and renewals
- AWS
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