Why Openness Matters More Than Ever

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Executive Director Duane O'Brien warned that Washington's potential trade block-lists and executive orders targeting Open Weights and Open Source AI would harm startups and small teams more than large labs, arguing that restricting access would not make the technology disappear but would reduce the ability to study and secure it. O'Brien cited OSI's comments to the White House and its work with the G7 on its Vision on AI Openness as part of its advocacy for openness.

Why Openness Matters More Than Ever Members Newsletter – August 2026 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 https://opensource.org/blog/open-forum-for-ai-open-source-initiative-respond-to-white-house-on-ai-rd-strategy , in our work with the G7 on its Vision on AI Openness https://opensource.org/blog/open-source-initiative-helps-g7-deliver-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 https://calendar.app.google/6hRkYLFo8tKC2GFo9 are always open. Warm regards, Duane O’Brien Executive Director, OSI News from the OSI Openness Made All of This Possible https://opensource.org/blog/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 Openness https://opensource.org/blog/the-ai-era-arcs-toward-openness EU AI Act and CRA: Timelines and Resources https://opensource.org/blog/eu-ai-act-and-cra-timelines-and-resources Preliminary agenda announced for the Open Technology Research Symposium 2026 https://opensource.org/blog/preliminary-agenda-announced-for-the-open-technology-research-symposium-2026 Podcast and video Understanding Open Source Law and AI Impacts in Modern Software Development https://openchannels.fm/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” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Rc7IIzwgk Gaël Blondele OSI in the news Open weights vs. closed: An AI civil war’s afoot, and the stakes are existential https://www.zdnet.com/article/open-weight-ai-civil-war/ ZDNet ‘Open-Washing’ Is Everywhere in AI. Four Criteria Cut Through It https://www.techpolicy.press/open-washing-is-everywhere-in-ai-four-criteria-cut-through-it/ Tech Policy Press G7 releases vision paper on openness in AI https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/g7-establishes-shared-language-open-source-ai Open Source Observatory News from OSI affiliates and community News from OSI affiliates and partners AI2 : Who gets to understand AI? https://allenai.org/blog/who-gets-to-understand-ai Center for Open Science : OSF Changes: A Note to Users https://www.cos.io/blog/osf-changes-a-note-to-users Common European data space : Making Public AI reality: How cultural heritage can lead the way https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu/en/news/making-public-ai-reality-how-cultural-heritage-can-lead-the-way Creative Commons : Introducing the CC Open Heritage Companion https://creativecommons.org/2026/07/16/cc-open-heritage-companion/ Creative Commons : Attribution in the Age of AI https://creativecommons.org/2026/07/24/attribution-in-the-age-of-ai Current AI : Join the AI Potluck https://www.currentai.org/blogs/join-the-ai-potluck Data Rescue Project : Open for Community Comment: Coalition for Resilient Research Data Infrastructure CRRDI Strategic Plan https://www.datarescueproject.org/open-for-community-comment-coalition-for-resilient-research-data-infrastructure-crrdi-strategic-plan/ DPGA : Navigating the Paradox of Open: New Resources for Defending Data and Content DPGs in the Age of AI https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/blog/navigating-the-paradox-of-open Drupal Association : Tiffany Farriss to lead the DA https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/tiffany-farriss-to-lead-the-drupal-association Eclipse Foundation : Eclipse Foundation 2026 annual Community report https://www.eclipse.org/org/foundation/annual-reports/2026/ Eclipse Foundation : Eclipse Foundation and OWASP Join Forces to Strengthen Open Source Security and CRA Readiness https://newsroom.eclipse.org/news/announcements/eclipse-foundation-and-owasp-join-forces-strengthen-open-source-security-and-cra ETH AI Center : Apertus 1.5: Building the next generation of open AI infrastructure https://ai.ethz.ch/news-and-events/ai-center-news/2026/07/apertus-15-building-the-next-generation-of-open-ai-infrastructure.html ETSI : ETSI launches approval process for 17 European Standards supporting the Cyber Resilience Act https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/press-releases/etsi-launches-approval-process-for-17-european-standards-supporting-the-cyber-resilience-act/ European Commission : Commission publishes new guidance to support timely Cyber Resilience Act implementation https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-new-guidance-support-timely-cyber-resilience-act-implementation European Commission : Commission starts enforcing AI Act rules and new transparency requirements on 2 August https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-starts-enforcing-ai-act-rules-and-new-transparency-requirements-2-august European Open Source Academy : Summer School 2026 https://europeanopensource.academy/european-open-source-academy-summer-school-2026 FSFE : A quarter-century of Software Freedom: the FSFE turns 25 https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260803-01.en.html ITU : Trustworthy GENIE.AI as an open source foundation for public sector genAI https://opensource.unicc.org/un/itu/genie-ai Java community : The Java Story | The Official Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSg4b cZA Linux Foundation : Linux Foundation Announces Intent to Launch Open Health Stack Software Foundation to Advance Open Source Digital Health Innovation https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-announces-intent-to-launch-open-health-stack-software-foundation-to-advance-open-source-digital-health-innovation Linux Foundation : Open Models and Open Weights Are Foundational to Secure AI https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/open-models-and-open-weights-are-foundational-to-secure-ai Mozilla Foundation : Is Open-Source AI Really the Dangerous Path? https://www.techpolicy.press/is-open-source-ai-really-the-dangerous-path/ ODSI : Launch of Open Digital Sovereignty Initiative https://odsi.africa/ OpenForum Europe : From Recommendations to Actions https://openforumeurope.org/from-recommendations-to-actions/ OpenSSF : Built to Last: Understanding the European Cyber Resilience Act CRA https://openssf.org/cra-ebook Software Heritage : The world’s first government open source insights report launches at UN Open Source Week https://www.softwareheritage.org/2026/07/01/public code 2026 launch/ Software Stewardship Lab : A Research Lab for Open Source https://stewardshiplab.org/ideas/a-research-lab-for-open-source/ The Document Foundation : The characteristics of a truly open document standard format https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/08/06/truly-open-document-standard-format/ TODO Group : Lessons from the Industry’s Leading OSPOs https://todogroup.org/blog/2026-07-20-lessons-from-industry-leading-ospo/ News from community members MongoDB v. FerretDB: When Open Source Compatibility Becomes a Patent Risk https://shujisado.org/2026/07/15/mongodb-v-ferretdb-when-open-source-compatibility-becomes-a-patent-risk/ Shuji Sado License-only versus Stewarded Open Source https://dri.es/license-only-versus-stewarded-open-source Dries Buytaert Why Open Source Matters for AI https://www.oreilly.com/radar/why-open-source-matters-for-ai/ Tim O’Reilly Open-source is NOT the same as open-weight https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/open-source-is-not-the-same-as-open Gary Marcus Kimi K3: The open-weights escalation https://www.interconnects.ai/p/kimi-k3-the-open-weights-escalation Nathan Lambert Distillation Is Not IP Theft https://matthewdwhite.substack.com/p/distillation-is-not-ip-theft Matt White Data Sovereignty Doesn’t Mean Data Isolationism https://www.techpolicy.press/data-sovereignty-doesnt-mean-data-isolationism/ Luca Belli What Agentic AI Asks of Open Source Strategy: A New Layer for OSPOs https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/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’ https://www.zdnet.com/article/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 https://europeanopensource.academy/defining-open-source-ai-principles-perspectives-and-practical-challenges Alfonso Cancellara Battle Royale: Who Owns Intelligence? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9hTuCYwgz0 Taunya Brown News from sponsors Code for the People https://codeforthepeople.com/ Automattic $100 million for open source: A milestone built by the community https://github.blog/open-source/maintainers/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 https://opensource.googleblog.com/2026/08/adapting-open-source-practices-to-an-ai-first-world-a-retrospective-on-2025.html?m=1 Google Open Weights and American AI Leadership https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/topics/open-weight/ Microsoft Research and white papers Open Source AI Europe and Open Source AI: Beyond Licenses https://www.ens.psl.eu/sites/default/files/2026-08/Europe%20and%20Open%20Source%20AI %20Beyond%20Licenses.pdf AI and Society Institute The state of open source AI https://stateofopensource.ai/ Mozilla Unpacking Open Source Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Framework for Openness in Foundation Models https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3778264 Communications of the ACM A Sovereign, Open-Source Foundation Model for German and English https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.09424v1 Soofi Perspectives for Open Source AI: Regulatory approaches of the EU, U.S., and China https://i-lex.unibo.it/article/view/23382 i-lex – Journal of Law, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence The Open-Source Advantage in Large Language Models https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s43681-026-01190-4?sharing token=YnfRZfolrysfco5dvO0Dqve4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY68Uk7wzrCZYRKOxXfD4Gf8ON4wsHfYOX6sAjsMPUtPXXiFARlIG 9k5362nTLhp8et3naPTjJKUR6mCfzLqwjdj9G392cDufKmlAO5a6oRzLB8RH9O5XFMjO2wH4Jdk4A%3D AI and Ethics Innovation Accelerator or “Venus Flytrap” Strategy? The Antitrust Perspective on Open Source AI Regulation https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijdlg-2026-0007/html International Journal of Digital Law and Governance Open-source AI 101: the battle for the future of AI https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/IE-PROD/PDFVIEWER.calias?pdfViewerPdfUrl=PROD0000000000634010&rwnode=REPORT Deutsche Bank Research Institute Open Source Software Open practices across science, software, education and other domains https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02526-0.epdf?sharing token=WTu4i-8lmax9O3yAQjqOGdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OE6s3eP0Xv-N5SO4n-CW1FGUQ5Mx B5crz9Xr-fCamcnawZANOmT2V1NuzGmGG3aqVRDJniGetN 9wL28o3Sqb UeIVecoHIM01TKfsGFtR9vUOo-rocm8WZMPh4fpde4%3D Nature Human Behaviour Advancing Digital Government through Open Source Indicators https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121226002645 Journal of Systems and Software Open Source Software: Security Principles and Practices https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/open-source-software-security-principles-and-practices CISA What comes after FOSS? https://infrastructureinsights.fund/projects/what-comes-after-foss/ Leiden University / Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund Dashboards AI Potluck https://www.aipotluck.org/ Current AI LicenseAtlas https://morningd.github.io/license.atlas/ Moming Duan License Review Tracker https://morningd.github.io/license.atlas/tracker Moming Duan Artifacts Hub https://artifactshub.ai/ Interconnects Adoption Dashboard https://dashboard.interconnects.ai/ Interconnects Events Upcoming events Open Source Congress and Stakeholder Day https://opensourcecongress.org/ September 22-23, Halifax Open Source Summit Europe https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe/ October 7-9, Prague All Things Open https://2026.allthingsopen.org/ October 18-20, Raleigh Open Technology Research Symposium https://symposium.opentechresearch.org/ October 26-27, Barcelona Mozilla Festival https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/festival/ October 28-30, Barcelona Check the top 50+ Open Source conferences of 2026 https://opensource.org/blog/top-50-open-source-conferences-in-2026 that the OSI is tracking, including events that intersect with AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and policy. 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