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Deployment

Open-source AI

2024ActivePublished: 6 August 2026Updated: 6 August 2026Published
Key innovation
Extending free-software principles to AI systems: releasing not just model weights but also code and data information under terms granting the freedom to use, study, modify and share the system.
Category
Deployment
Abstraction level
Paradigm
Operation level
ModelSystemDeploymentData
Use cases
Reproducible scientific researchSelf-hosting of modelsFine-tuning and building derivative modelsAudit and transparency (bias, safety)Avoiding vendor lock-inOn-premise / regulated-environment deployment

How it works

An AI system counts as open-source when it is provided under terms satisfying the four OSAID freedoms and when the preferred form for modification is available: (a) training-data information sufficient for a skilled person to recreate a substantially similar system, (b) the complete source code used to train and run the model under an OSI-approved license, and (c) the model parameters (weights) under open terms. Licenses must permit commercial and non-commercial use, creation and distribution of derivatives, and must not discriminate against persons, groups or fields of use. Compliance is assessed against these criteria, not merely the fact that weights were published.

Problem solved

Many models marketed as 'open' release only weights, without code and data, making full study, audit and reproduction impossible ('open-washing'). Open-source AI defines clear criteria for when an AI system is genuinely open and protects users' freedoms.

Components

Data informationEnables understanding and recreation of the training data.

Description of provenance, collection and labeling of training data, including characteristics of unshareable data.

Source codeEnables training and running the system from scratch.

Complete code for data processing, training, validation and inference under an OSI-approved license.

Parameters (weights)The learned model artifact.

Model weights and configuration settings released under open terms.

License and freedomsThe legal framework of openness.

Legal terms guaranteeing the four freedoms: use, study, modify and share, without discrimination against fields of use.

Official

Implementation

Implementation pitfalls
Open-washingHigh

Marketing a model as 'open source' while releasing only weights (open-weight), without code and data information.

Fix:Assess compliance against OSAID (weights + code + data information + freedoms), not the mere publication of weights.
Unshareable dataMedium

Training data is often subject to copyright or privacy and cannot be fully shared.

Fix:OSAID allows a description of unshareable data (data information) instead of the full dataset.

Evolution

1998
Open Source Definition (OSI) for software

The Open Source Initiative formalized the open source definition for software - the foundation later extended to AI.

2024
Open Source AI Definition 1.0 (OSAID) published
Inflection point

In October 2024 OSI published the first formal definition of open-source AI, establishing four freedoms and requiring release of weights, code and data information.