Extract from Matt A. Todd and Bryce H. Bailey’s article “Legal Pitfalls at the Intersection of AI and Open Source Software”
Whereas industries at large are rapidly expanding their usage of artificial intelligence (AI), business leaders may not appreciate how they have similarly been expanding their use of open source software (OSS) for many years. OSS—computer software where the source code is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute—has served as a backbone for tech companies for many years, even if the businesses themselves don’t appreciate it. And with the expansion of the use of AI, the use of OSS may become even more prevalent, as companies rely on auto coders (which often train on and pull from OSS) to help streamline development. Either way, as OSS is continually utilized across industries, the legal landscape surrounding its use has grown increasingly complex. While OSS appeals to many developers due to its ease of use, OSS hides a host of legal issues that are still evolving – now in tandem with AI development. Companies that rely on OSS must contend with nuanced licensing issues, emerging regulatory frameworks, and heightened risk to their intellectual property.
Evolving Open-Source Licensing in the Age of AI
Open-source licenses like the GNU General Public License (GPL), Apache License, and MIT License were crafted during a time when software was written almost exclusively by humans.
