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Open source AI models can play a vital role in promoting transparency, competition, and experimentation in AI. Two-thirds of recent foundation models were released openly, and popular repositories now boast over a million open models – spanning everything from robotics and climate prediction to text, image, and voice generation. However, open models pose unique challenges for oversight. The difficulty for policymakers is how to respond to emerging risks while preserving the culture of open innovation that made recent AI breakthroughs possible, and can help to make AI safer.

Yet open models are particularly vulnerable to overbroad regulatory intervention. While few policymakers have taken up the call to “ban” open-source, well-intentioned reforms can directly or indirectly stifle the open distribution of useful technology. Join Ben Brooks to discuss this “surreptitious” regulation of open innovation in AI across federal, state, and global jurisdictions. How should we think about the opportunity and the risk of open models? How are authorities responding in practice? What are the unintended consequences of these efforts, and what can we learn from existing reforms?

Bio:

Ben Brooks is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, Harvard where he scrutinizes the regulatory and legislative response to open-source AI development. Brooks served most recently as head of Public Policy for Stability AI, a developer of popular AI models, including Stable Diffusion. He has testified in the US Congress and UK Parliament, and represented open developers everywhere from the White House to Bletchley Park. Previously, Brooks advocated for the safe, fair, and durable regulation of emerging technology with Uber, Coinbase, and Google’s drone delivery service, Wing, the FAA’s first certified drone “airline”. He has worked with authorities on the ground in over two dozen countries as they navigate complex reforms in high-stakes and permission-based domains – from Mandalay to Texas, and from communist governments to royal courts. Brooks holds degrees in law, history, and literature.

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