The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) poses challenges for the free and open-source software (FOSS) community, a global network that is committed to creating and maintaining publicly available software that anyone can use, modify, and share.
Many AI models have been built on open-source software but do not reciprocate the transparency that the FOSS community's principles require, leaving open-source developers uncertain about how these AI tools are using their code.
A new study by researchers at Yale's Digital Ethics Center (DEC) explores a potential solution to this problem based on a concept used in free and open-source software known as "copyleft" licenses - a twist on typical copyright rules that obliges works derived from open-source materials to remain as free and transparent as the original work rather than re-licensing it under more restrictive terms.
