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The open-source software movement has long had broad support in Silicon Valley. The question of whether cutting-edge artificial-intelligence models ought to be available on an open-source basis, though, is sparking a serious debate from here to Washington, D.
C. and beyond.over the future direction of the world. Whichever country develops the best artificial-intelligence models will win the global economic war and shape the rest of the planet socially, economically and politically, Khosla said at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco last month.Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla, right, discusses public policy matters with Bloomberg executive producer Emily Chang at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on May 9, 2024. Khosla warned about the dangers of open-sourcing artificial intelligence. In that context, it doesn’t make any sense for the U.S. to allow our best AI models to be available for free to China, he said.On the flip side, there are people such as Marc Andreessen, a perhaps even more well-known tech venture capitalist. At a Stanford event last week celebrating the fifth anniversary of the university’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Andreessen argued that restricting open-source access to AI would lead to a cartel of big companies dominating the technology and would And that’s assuming such restrictions were even feasible, he said. Truly preventing the spread of open-source AI might require a global surveillance regime, bombing rogue data centers that distributed open-source AI or threatening nuclear war, he said, pointing to an argument made by Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI researcher who advocates shutting down advanced AI development. “You have to ask yourself what kind of society would you need to design that would have the enforcement mechanisms to enforce an open-source ban?” Andreessen said. “Now you start to get into Orwell territory.”Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said at a Stanford event last week that restricting open-source access to AI would lead to a cartel of big companies dominating the technology. If those opposing views each sound apocalyptic in their own way, it might not be surprising, given the excitement and hype AI has engendered. Depending on who you ask, AI has the potential to be perhaps the biggest boon ever to humanity — or its biggest bane, destined to wipe the human race out of existence. As might be expected with stakes seemingly that high, the debate over whether AI should be open-sourced isn’t confined to table talk at tech conferences. It has been the subject of a series of research and white papers and opinion pieces in policy journals — and public policymakers are starting to focus on it as well. A bill authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that passed the state Senate last month would put new, potentially hard-to-meet restrictions on open-source AI development. And in February, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce, solicited comments from the public about the risks and benefits of open-sourcing AI with the stated purpose of informing policy recommendations it would make to President Joe Biden.Open sourcing is the practice of making software and its underlying code freely available so that they can be modified or redistributed with few, if any, limitations. The practice has become incredibly popular over the last 30 years, in part because open source has made it easier for developers to collaborate, identify and fix bugs, and build on each others’ work. Some of the most popular software around the world is either available on an open-source basis or built on open-source software, including the Android and Linux operating systems; Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari web browsers; the Nginx and Apache web servers, which distribute most of the world’s web pages; and programming languages such as Perl, Python, Java and many others. Because the source code of open-source software is freely available, people other than the original developers can add to or tweak it, even to make competing products. To create Chrome, for example, Google originally used WebKit, the same browser engine underlying Safari. It eventually created its own browser engine, Chromium, by modifying WebKit.When it comes to artificial-intelligence systems, however, open source works a bit differently. Such systems consist of multiple components that typically include a model architecture, which is the core algorithm that determines what the system does with and learns from inputted data; model weights, which are the variables that determine how inputted data such as prompts are turned into output, such as illustrations or essays; the software code that’s used to train the model or run it after its trained; and the training data. A developer can choose to open up or provide access to any of those components or combinations of them. Much of the debate around open-sourcing AI has focused on model weights, which are key to how the systems work.in terms of their openness. Google’s Flamingo, which its DeepMind unit launched in 2022, is completely closed to outsiders. By contrast, all the components of GPT-NeoX from nonprofit research group EleutherAI are open. Meta and OpenAI’s models are in between those extremes. Meta made the weights available for its Llama 2, but it has restricted how the model can be used and hasn’t opened up the code or training data. OpenAI allows developers to tap into its GPT 3.5 and 4 and incorporate them into their own apps, but it hasn’t opened up the model weights on them. In general, the more closed an AI model is, the more easily its developers can control how it’s used and who can use it. The more open an AI model is, the more easily people other than its developers can tweak or customize it for their own purposes. But with open models, there’s no going back — once a developer opens up a model, it’s essentially open forever. Those who warn about the dangers of allowing ready access to model weights generally put the classes of harms into two big buckets. One involves the risk that U.S. adversaries such as China and Russia will take advantage of such access to speed up their own AI development and use the technology to harm American interests or citizens. The other risk is that hackers, criminal syndicates, terror groups or other malicious actors will exploit that openness to create their own AI systems to do things such as spread misinformation, launch cyberattacks or get the recipes to build biological or chemical weapons.In terms of open-sourcing software, ”the unique thing with AI is ... the extent of misuse and harms that could be caused because of how powerful and capable the systems are,” said Elizabeth Seger, the director of technology policy at Demos, a U.K.-based public-policy think tank. But open-source advocates argue that many of the fears raised by skeptics are overblown. Recent research indicates that the latest AI models wouldn’t be particularly helpful at designing a bioweapon and aren’t particularly good at crafting personally targeted propagandistic messages that might be used in disinformation campaigns. Additionally, they warn that restricting open-source models could curtail academic research into AI and further entrench the early leaders in the development of the big, broad foundational model, such as OpenAI. And they say that in the global race to spread AI technology, such limitations wouldn’t necessarily keep AI systems out of the hands of U.S. rivals or malicious actors. Instead, it could give a leg up to models developed in countries such China that wouldn’t be imbued with U.S. values. “We do not have a monopoly on advanced AI technology as a country,” said Oren Etzione, a longtime AI researcher who is the founder of, which uses the technology to identify fake AI-generated images, videos and audio recordings. “Ultimately, that is a significant limitation to any attempt to restrict adversaries.”The debate over the risks and benefits to open-source AI is set to play out in the California Assembly, which is now considering Senate Bill 1047, Wiener’s AI safety bill. Advocates on both sides of the debate say the legislation could hamper open-source AI development by making developers liable if they don’t take sufficient steps to ensure that either their AI systems or ones derived from those systems can’t be used to cause harm.“I think it’s a little bit crazy,” said Keegan McBride, a lecturer in artificial intelligence, government and policy at the University of Oxford. “I appreciate what the senator ... is trying to do. I understand the motivations behind it. But at least in its current form, it’s basically set to kill a whole lot of AI innovation in the state.” Such concerns are hyperbole, said Gabriel Weil, an assistant professor at Touro Law Center in New York. But if Wiener’s bill slows down AI development that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because of the technology’s potential for misuse and causing harm, he said. “That’s not my model of what we should be trying to do with AI policy, is accelerating its capabilities as fast as possible,” said Weil, who focuses on laws governing the technology.Christopher “Olajuwon” Mitchell at his shoeshine stand: “I work a little extra harder, and somehow things work out. I can’t explain it, but it’s beautiful.” Shoe shiner Christopher “Olajuwon” Mitchell has been a fixture in downtown San Francisco for much of the last 40 years, often bedecked in San Francisco 49ers gear and Hawaiian bead necklaces. “Shine ’em up! Get ’em shined,” Mitchell called recently to the passing commuters and tourists, the lifeblood of his one-man business, as he sat juggling brushes in a chair atop a portable stand outside the Embarcadero BART and MUNI station. For more than three years, Mitchell was not plying his trade on the streets at all. Instead, he said, he was sustained largely by donations from some of his long-term customers who approached him when they saw him out feeding homeless people even though he himself was out of work. It’s been a year since Mitchell reopened for business, and times are still lean — particularly on Mondays and Fridays, when large numbers of people who regularly used to come downtown work remotely instead. On slow days, Mitchell said, he might get only one or two shines in 10 hours.Wednesdays are almost back to pre-pandemic levels, and it’s enough to keep Mitchell smiling in the broad way that has won him many dedicated fans. “I work a little extra harder, and somehow things work out. I can’t explain it, but it’s beautiful,” Mitchell said from under his umbrella, with incense and music from a boombox wafting around him. “Plus, I love people. That’s the key: You have to love people.” Mitchell’s clients, including bankers, lawyers, builders and politicians who have known him for decades, return that affection and are eager to sing his praises. Allison Davis, who recently retired from her job as an antitrust attorney, still goes downtown to see Mitchell, whom she has known for more than 20 years. The two share ties to Louisiana, where Mitchell grew up, and Davis has a house. When Davis recently returned from a visit there, she brought cooking spices as a gift for Mitchell.Another supporter is Dennis Herrera, the former city attorney and current general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “Olajuwon is an absolute gem and has been a stalwart of the downtown scene for decades,” Herrera said. “Unfortunately, the pandemic and its aftermath have devastated his industry, but I am so impressed that he has stuck it out and continues to do great work — and always with a smile!” Mitchell keeps big binders filled with sheets of paper that show his customers’ balances for their shoeshine package purchases. Patrick Suciu, a senior vice president and private-client advisor at Bank of America Private Bank, said he has known Mitchell for 18 years. He admires that when Mitchell reopened for business, he honored the multi-shine packages he sold customers before the lockdown, something not done by all businesses. Suciu said Mitchell likes to talk about cooking, and he recalled one tale about a dish with shrimp, tequila and lime. “He can describe cooking something or barbecuing something, and he makes it sound so good,” Suciu said.Just before the pandemic lockdown, several customers gave Mitchell money and warned that hard times were coming. One man who had recently been in China, where the pandemic started, handed him $1,500. “He say, ‘you’re gonna need this because you’re not gonna be shining shoes for a while,’” Mitchell said. When city officials told Mitchell to shut down, it drove home what he had long believed: that he, like many people, could be forced into homelessness with a few hard knocks. Matters got worse when his stand got hauled away.Olajuwon Mitchell at his shoe shine stand by the California Street Cable Car Turnaround at Drumm Street in San Francisco on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Mitchell said he went to pray at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in lower Pacific Heights, not far from his apartment. There, he was inspired to focus his energies on feeding homeless people. “I’m a Southern cook,” he said. “I’m not professional, but I’m saying, give me some fire and some wood, I can cook anything you got: steaks, ribs and the whole cow, whatever you need.” Wali Jelani, a doorman at the nearby Hyatt hotel who said he has known Mitchell for three decades, said Mitchell is “an excellent cook” who sometimes brings dishes for him to taste. A recent meal featured okra, shrimp and rice seasoned with Mitchell’s own elaborate spice mix.Reze Wong, an operating partner at prominent venture investment firm Khosla Ventures, said he was moved to see Mitchell — at a time when he did not have his shoeshine stand operating — on Market Street near the Embarcadero with a pot of homemade gumbo or fish stew, handing out meals to homeless people. “It really is incredible,” said Wong, who met Mitchell 15 years ago and was immediately “hooked” by his charisma and his trademark lines like, “Fresh out of the box!”“You can tell he has such a big heart,” Wong said. “For a guy who’s seen a lot and been through a lot, he’s still optimistic. That can be tough to find.” In addition to the cash support Mitchell received, one customer paid for the construction of a new carpeted shoeshine stand that rolls on wheels. Olajuwon credited Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin with connecting him to a nearby building operator who has provided space to safely store the stand. “He is an ambassador,” said Peskin, whose district includes Mitchell’s spot and has also helped Mitchell address housing issues. “He tells tourists where to go and what to see. The City needs to show him love, and I have been trying to do that for years.” A native of Iberia Parish, La., about 130 miles west of New Orleans, Mitchell said he played sports as a youth, including college football and a yearlong semiprofessional stint. He left college early after having a daughter and took a job as a courthouse security guard. Mitchell said two of his brothers had brief professional football careers, and he remains an avid sports fan who regales customers with stories of meeting famous players, such as San Francisco 49ers great Ronnie Lott, and shining the shoes of 49ers CEO Jed York. Mitchell left Louisiana for Honolulu, where a sister lived, and spent a decade working there as a medical assistant and a phlebotomist, he said. He moved to San Francisco to be near his daughter and her mother. He was working as a night security guard when he met a man on a bus who taught him to shine shoes and gave him the lasting nickname of “Olajuwon” because he said Mitchell looked like Since then, Mitchell has worked inside for long stretches, but he said he currently wants to remain outside and independent — maybe one day with a shoeshine stand made to look like a cable car. One thing is certain, though — he expects to be in downtown San Francisco.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. 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