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Open source AI models are actually safer and more secure than closed ones, because transparency lets many engineers spot and fix bugs or unwanted behaviors, and because running them on your own infrastructure avoids transferring data out.
Rather than posing a security risk, the transparency of open source AI lets a wide community catch bugs and unwanted behavior, and keeps data on a company's own infrastructure. ✦ AI generated
Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · 2026-06-19 · original ↗
the transparency that is inherent to open source makes them safer and more secure, because more engineers and researchers can tune out unwanted model behaviors, like censorship, or fix bugs in the software that runs these models. As one popular saying goes, "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." An open source model also does not transfer data, when installed on your own company's infrastructure as Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, explained.
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supports → Washington's current wave of AI regulatory activity risks spilling over into regulating or banning open source AI, and that would be a grave mistake.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnectsexplains mechanism → Trying to slow or ban the open model ecosystem is futile, unsafe, and anti-freedom, because it would concentrate AI development among a select few and cut off outsiders' ability to adopt the technology.the author · Interconnectssupports → Trying to slow or ban the open model ecosystem is futile, unsafe, and anti-freedom, because it would concentrate AI development among a select few and cut off outsiders' ability to adopt the technology.the author · Interconnectsexplains mechanism → Local coding agents are becoming increasingly attractive because they run at near-zero marginal cost on owned hardware and offer better privacy than sending data to OpenAI or Anthropic.Sebastian Raschka · Ahead of AI