Claim◆Article
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 argues that policy efforts to restrict open-weight AI models would fail like past tech bans, while also being unsafe and freedom-restricting because they would concentrate AI power in a few hands. ✦ AI generated
the author · Interconnects · 2026-06-28 · original ↗
Attempts to slow or ban this ecosystem are not only futile, as the history of tech-related bans has shown, but also unsafe and anti-freedom. Such restrictions would concentrate AI development and usage among the select few, which ultimately endangers outsiders’ ability to freely adopt one of the most important technologies of our lifetime.
Read full article ↗excerpt · fair-use quotation
- ·Bans on open-weight AI would fail, like past tech bans
- ·Restrictions are also unsafe and anti-freedom
- ·Would concentrate AI development among a select few
- ·Restricting open models cuts off outsiders' adoption
- ·AI is among the era's most important technologies
- ·Concentrating power undermines freedom to adopt AI
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Evidence · 6
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) · Interconnects · conf 70%Anthropic and OpenAI are consolidating a closed-model duopoly that concentrates power and pricing leverage, and open weight models are the only real counterweight available to startups, schools, and enterprises.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · conf 65%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.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · conf 65%Cracking down on open source AI out of fear of China would backfire: American startups already rely on open source models, including Chinese ones, to compete, and restricting them would only weaken US education, innovation, and competition.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · conf 65%Open source lets innovators build without fear of lawsuits or licensing costs, letting ideas coded in a dorm room or garage grow into major companies, as when the first version of Facebook was built entirely on open source software.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · conf 65%Open source lets challengers compete against dominant incumbents and curbs monopoly power, as shown when Linux broke Microsoft's Windows monopoly and Android opened up the smartphone market before the iPhone could dominate it.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · conf 65%