OSI at UNGA81: Open Source AI definitions and funding take center stage

Defining Open Source AI for policymakers

On Monday, September 21, Duane O'Brien spoke on the panel "What is Open Source AI? Applications, Strategies and Global Cooperation" at UN Digital Cooperation Day, organized by the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET). Sarah Myers West of the AI Now Institute moderated. The other panelists were Kari Briski of NVIDIA, Marzieh Fadaee of Cohere Labs, Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation and Rumman Chowdhury of Humane Intelligence.

West asked what delegates should consider as governments begin negotiating language on Open Source AI for the UN's Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and what happens if the terms stay undefined. O'Brien pointed to history. Companies once attached the Open Source label to products that restricted the freedoms to use, study, modify and share, and the OSI's work on licenses made the term shorthand the whole industry understood. "You need these kinds of common definitions when you're crafting policy," he said, "or else everyone is speaking a completely different language."

He described the OSI's role as convening the global community to reach consensus. According to the OSI, that meant two years of workshops and conversations in 18 countries, plus online town halls, before version 1.0 of the Open Source AI Definition was published in October 2024. The Open Source AI Fellowship, launched in June with Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, is examining how well the definition serves its users and who was missing from the first conversations. O'Brien noted that the Open Source Definition took about ten years to settle, so the AI definition is still early in that process.

Governments pick up the work

During the Member State interventions, France's Ambassador for Digital Affairs cited the G7 Vision on AI Openness. G7 digital ministers adopted it in May under the French presidency, after the OSI helped draft it as a knowledge partner. The ambassador asked that the work inform the UN's Global Dialogue and called the UN a natural forum for making those principles universal.

Asked how open models handle data that cannot be released, O'Brien said the Open Source AI Definition requires developers to release the data they can and accurately describe the data they cannot. He said the G7 vision made that language stronger. When a delegate asked what to tell their child about Open Source and AI, Zemlin answered, "Be a maker, not a user." O'Brien said Open Source technologies are "built by the people who show up."

Openness, sovereignty and the need to invest

Creative Commons and the NYU Engelberg Center hosted Open @ UNGA81, a day on what openness can and cannot do for communities and countries pursuing digital sovereignty. O'Brien joined the Open Source panel with Amanda Casari of Google Open Source Programs Office, Madiha Zahrah Choksi of Columbia University, Ben Moskowitz of Two Planets and Ilan Strauss of AI Disclosures Project.

When discussion kept returning to whether openness would cause or prevent particular outcomes, O'Brien said it brings transparency and reproducibility but no go-to-market strategy of its own. Pointing to Linux, which reached its position through decades of sustained investment, he said: "If we want these kinds of markets to flourish in Europe or anywhere, we have to invest in creating those markets." Creative Commons CEO Anna Tumadóttir reached a similar conclusion in her recap, arguing that maintainers and shared infrastructure belong in public funding strategies.

The Open Source AI Definition came up twice. O'Brien acknowledged that it "is not without criticism" and that much has changed since publication. He said the OSI will soon begin conversations about its future and invited interested people to take part.

Digital public infrastructure and the 50-in-5 Awards

The OSI also attended the inaugural 50-in-5 Awards at The Morgan Library & Museum. The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) coordinated the ceremony with Co-Develop as part of 50-in-5, a country-led campaign to help 50 countries launch and scale parts of their digital public infrastructure (DPI) by 2028.

• Benin won the Impact Award for a system that has registered nearly 13.75 million people, about 99% of its population, and connects more than 60 government entities.
• Indonesia won the Collaboration Award for QRIS Cross-Border, a payment system working across seven countries and supporting more than 45 million businesses.
• Esther Dweck, Brazil's Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, received the Leadership Award. Her government used GOV.BR and PIX to deliver emergency assistance to flood-affected communities in as little as six days.

Italy announced it was joining as the campaign's 40th country. The OSI links this to its own work: under the DPG Standard, software qualifies as a digital public good only with an OSI-approved license.

What comes next

The OSI describes the work ahead as slow: refining definitions, describing data honestly, reviewing licenses and finding money for maintainers of shared infrastructure. It plans to keep bringing community experience to rooms where governments set AI and digital policy. Those who want a say in the next phase of the Open Source AI Definition can watch the OSI blog or visit the OSI track at All Things Open in Raleigh on October 20.