Huge congrats, Erin Kissane & Darius Kazemi on the report & recommendations release! (Full access & download via: https://t.co/Rbcy0JdLvU)

📑 https://t.co/sbVoSF2i8B Both researchers have been featured in the ecosystem: 🎧 Listen to Erin Kissane on the https://t.co/u5Tcsm3dPT - podcast here: https://t.co/fnXc8z011H - 👨‍🏫 and 2 talks Darius gave at FOSSY & XOXO here: https://t.co/6KVnFFC4pm  &

The research sought to identify current server administrators’ most promising models f. mitigating those risks and outline the biggest and most important gaps in risk mitigation, with the aim of helping the broader Fediverse level up governance quickly, safely, & collaboratively.

For the first half of 2024, independent researchers and Fediverse denizens Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi spoke to the admins and moderation teams of a dozen small- and medium-sized Fediverse servers.

We keep them coming today: {📷New report alert # 2!} : *Fediverse Governance: Successes and gaps* Decentralized social media's rapid expansion, notably via the Fediverse and FOSS project Mastodon, brings both opportunities and multifaceted risks.

Access to results and contact: Cutting through open-washing - https://t.co/Do4cymy9Lg //

The paper therefore recommends a set of non-mutually exclusive policy options that could be taken on board by countries who are drafting and/or reviewing their own AI legislation. cc @FordFoundation @SloanFoundation @OmidyarNetwork @SchmidtFutures

Current policy approaches do not adequately tackle the openness challenge: Neither EU, UK nor US frameworks adequately tackle the openness challenge of Gen AI models. Yet, the EU has an opportunity to tackle this issue through the AI Act Code of Practice on General Purpose AI.

Barriers exist that limit the potential of openness to external researchers. For example, developers can limit the types of information and the model elements that they make available to researchers, limiting the scope and robustness of research.

The grantees advocate for policy that fosters openness towards external researchers, to capture the full benefits of transparency. Engaging diverse experts during development and post-release allows the AI community to better manage the interplay of risks and benefits of Gen AI.

Open washing focuses on promoting the benefits of openness without fully addressing its risks and complicates efforts to effectively regulate Gen AI, as these companies are keen to take advantage of AI regulations that put a lighter burden on broadly defined open-source models.

This “openness challenge” is complicated by open washing: companies misleadingly brand models as “open-source” or “open", while nonetheless maintaining use and access restrictions. This undermines the public’s understanding and create diversions from Gen AI risks.

When Gen AI developers made models freely available to the public, knowledge is usually distributed and competition is enhanced. But this openness comes with risks: malicious actors can evade developer oversight, remove any safeguards and customise models for harmful purposes.

[NEW PAPER ALERT!] Our grantees @A__W______O new paper puts forward a vision for balancing the benefits and risks of #opensource #GenAI (funded by @DigInfFund). Drafted by @NickBotton & @Mathver- a short thread #boundariesofopenness #digitalinfrastructure

field of (peer-)production could have on the people behind the code. PLUS: Thank you, funders circle (@FordFoundation , @SloanFoundation & co) for seeing the importance of this work and supporting the Fund since the very beginning in 2017. To happy new beginnings!

Thank you D//F-Reviewer @cailean_osborne(@linuxfoundation / @NGICommons) for sending us off to the days with a great keynote on metrics, how funders (might) deploy them - and what implications measures and other indicators of professionalisation of (a formerly unregulated)...

We`ll bust the hype and shine a light where there is too little attention to detail - For now: Thank you, fantastic cohort, for coming all the way to the city, sitting through 11 project presentations and my musings -

Expect work on the Browser/Search Funding Ecosystem, Tripartite Governance of Commons, OSM, Code Classifications, Community ISPs, Sunsetting, DPI Privacy Issues, Metrics and Values, Compliance as well as deployments of OSS in critical supply chains like research (and much more!)-

for so many bigger questions, relevant to society at large. Keep a close eye on this space and our website, https://t.co/LxKBvDv6Q5 for detailed info on our new research grants.

Just look at these faces (and this was at the end of day 2 already!) With this cohort, I feel we finally narrowed in on the feat to define how exactly public interest and digital infrastructures intersect- and why its undergirding infrastructures are the nucleus ...