A Primer on the Continuum of AI: From Closed to Open Source

The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub hosted a briefing with Congressional staff on one of the most important debates in AI policy: open and closed-source AI. On July 23rd, the Trump Administration released an “AI Action Plan” – a blueprint for policy actions the administration will take to accelerate AI development and deployment. The plan contained a section entitled “Encourage Open Source and Open Weight-AI.” But many firms and researchers develop variants of AI on a “continuum” where some models are fully open-source, others reveal some details about the model’s development and data, and still others are completely proprietary or “closed-source.” Our event explored how researchers and firms make choices along this continuum, and what those choices mean for data protection, innovation, competition, and trust in AI systems.

It was a great discussion, and we’re glad to help policymakers engage with the topics that will shape the future of AI.