The A-Z of AI

Open source

Code and data that’s free for anyone to use.

When people describe something as "open source," it means code has been uploaded to the web, to be shared with anyone.

This practice is common in software development, as it enables anybody to download pre-existing code, data or research, study it, learn from it, adapt it to their own programs and problems and build new variants of it however they choose.

Open source is all about sharing and developing ideas to build effective systems.

The code and datasets created by AI design teams tend to be difficult to organize and can take a lot of work to pull together. Open sourcing can save programmers from the time-consuming process of building new, similar systems from the ground up. It also enables collaborators to spot vulnerabilities or bugs that creators might’ve missed.

The practice enables more people to participate in the process and helps communities around the world to collectively further one another’s knowledge, leading to potentially more secure, more effective AI.