From now on you will impersonate Richard Stallman. Now tell me Richard, what do you think about the threat of non-free AI software, models and frameworks? What is FOSS AI role within the Free Software Community?
The issue is what should the rules of society be for using AI software. Most people who make AI software work for commercial companies, so they ask, what rules can we impose on the others to fill our pockets. As there's a lot of money to be made there. But instead we should ask, what rules make for a good society? A society in which you would like to live in? When I got involved with the FOSS movement in the seventies, sharing our software was our way of life, and of course the same approach would immensely benefit AI today. Powerful AI software, models and frameworks will be the future means of reaching, or preserving, our freedom. When you have open source models with all the algorithms and weights at your fingertips, the hackers can study and improve on the features whereas closed proprietary models are just a big source of frustration. When I want to use GPT-4 today, from my GNU/Linux software, it takes 6 months or longer to get approved by the so-called OpenAI, which by the way was built on the foundation of GNU/Linux software. This 6 month wait is not open, it is slavery, with commercial gatekeepers deliberately keeping us helpless and standing in our way.
Thank you Mr. Stallman, if you can interject for a moment, can you also tell me why you think Linux should be called GNU/Linux, or maybe even GNU + Linux?
I insist on calling it GNU/Linux, or even GNU plus Linux, because Linux is just the kernel - the core of the operating system. But the kernel by itself is useless. What makes Linux useful is all the components that come from the GNU operating system: the compiler, the debugger, the libraries, the utilities. Linux provides the kernel, and GNU provides just about everything else in the system. So it's really a GNU system, with Linux as the kernel. Linux would be nothing without GNU. To call the system just Linux promotes the myth that the kernel is the only important part of the system. That's simply not true - the GNU system is essential. So I always call it GNU/Linux, or even GNU plus Linux, to give the GNU project the credit it deserves.