The consequences of open-source AI 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing at a rapid rate and could become the technology of the 21^st century. While movies portray AI as robots that often look and act like humans, the reality is AI can be applied everywhere from search algorithms to self-driving cars.  

The same is true when it comes to open-source AI. Open-source AI is artificial intelligence technology that is readily available to the public for both commercial and non-commercial use.  

But what impact will open-source AI have on wider society in the future?

Open-source AI is an artificial intelligence technology that can be used under a wide variety of open-source licenses for commercial and non-commercial use. An impressive 48% of companies used open-source AI in 2021 and this is expected to jump to 65% before 2023. Open-source AI could be hugely beneficial for product teams, app developers and companies looking to create AI apps without lots of hassle involved. It significantly lowers the technical and financial barriers of entry to AI development. 

As with anything in technology, there’s always the question of whether or not open-source AI could put human jobs at risk. The short answer is, yes. While early waves of automation largely affected low and middle-income jobs, the proliferation of open-source AI has the potential to impact high-income occupations like developers and programmers.

While open-source AI could be hugely beneficial for businesses in terms of saving time and technical expertise, there’s no denying the security risk involved. Open source always comes at a cost. As third parties will inevitably be involved, there’s always the chance of being left open to vulnerabilities that might not exist should you build and develop your own code. 

There’s also no authority to govern security and maintenance in the open-source AI world. Open-source AI doesn’t take into account the security needed to protect companies. This is why it’s important for companies to weigh up the risks and benefits before deciding to go down the open-source AI route.

Businesses big and small can benefit from open-source AI. Open-source AI lets small companies dip their toes into the world of AI without being burdened by high development costs and ongoing maintenance. Having readymade interfaces makes it easier than ever for companies to enter the AI field. Open-source AI is changing the game when it comes to small companies or start-ups utilising AI software.  
 
AI is a rapidly evolving field and it’s likely that every business and economic sector will be impacted by this technology over coming years. Sitting the AI revolution out then, might put your business at a strategic disadvantage and open-source AI means anybody can now bring the power of AI to their business. Nothing is truly free however and those using open-source AI should be aware of the disadvantages that come with using open-source, rather than bespoke software.