AI: Open Source Software to the rescue
February 4, 2025
Less than one month ago, we were all just waiting for the AI market to evolve into an oligopoly or — even worse — a monopoly à la Microsoft Office. The only open questions were:
- How much will corporations pay for commercial use?
- Which performance will private users get “for free”?
- What about intellectual property protection and data privacy?
But now, there is an alternative to ChatGPT & friends: DeepSeek, which many experts regard to be at least at the same level. Besides, DeepSeek consumes reportedly less energy than its competitors, which nowadays is a Good Thing.
However, there is something far more disruptive: DeepSeek is Open Source software, which has serious implications:
- Corporations, organizations and individuals with enough determination can have their own version of DeepSeek. This opens the market to many players — an oligopoly is not inevitable anymore.
- Such DeepSeek “derivatives” could be hosted on-premise and guaranteed never to “call home”. Let that sink in: All IP protection and data privacy concerns just disappear.
- Even if you don’t like DeepSeek at all: Since it is Open Source Software, you can just study its source code and use it as an inspiration for your own LLM.
This is why the advent of DeepSeek is so profound: Now there is a chance that the AI market will become free rather than end up as a monopoly.
Isn’t it ironic that the Open Source movement could save the free market?