Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, has pleaded with the European Union (EU) to protect open-source developers from the laws that are being proposed for artificial intelligence (AI).
The Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), a set of proposed legislation by the EU, aims to address the growing impact of AI on daily life.
A draft of the AI Act is anticipated to be voted on by the European Parliament in the upcoming months, with a probable adoption date of the end of 2023.
The AI Act’s potential to impose legal obligations on general-purpose AI systems (GPAI) puts greater power in the hands of large tech businesses while burdening individual open-source developers who lack the means to deal with legal issues. This is the core problem.
Dohmke emphasized during a speech at the EU Open Source Policy Summit that open source is the cornerstone of AI in Europe, providing a chance for the continent to be a leader in this area.
The European Parliament is now debating the AI Act, which intends to address the growing impact of AI on our daily life.
Dohmke asserts that politicians are essential to fulfilling the AI Act’s goal of harmonizing AI advantages with European principles and basic rights.
He argues that since the AI Act ultimately concerns individuals, it should not apply to open-source developers.
Since open source is a community of people, not organizations, it should be the businesses that sell the products that are responsible for the compliance, not the volunteers, hobbyists, and professionals who contribute without expecting payment and lack the means to do so.
He emphasized the need of upholding people’s rights and urged politicians to play a crucial role in accomplishing this objective.
