Listen to this articleAccording to International Data Corporation, a leading global research firm, the ongoing incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into a wide range of products will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.0%; with spending on AI-centric systems expected to surpass $300 billion in 2026.
The growth of the market is mostly due to the enormous promise AI, and large language model (LLM), technology hold for end-use industries like healthcare, media, legal, automotive, retail and manufacturing, among many others. These platforms are getting better every day at creating content, quickly analyzing data, spotting trends and generating actionable intelligence.
Open source software plays an important role in AI and LLM platforms. The most used LLM platforms are available as open source, or freely available to download and use. Additionally, an ever-growing number of training and interface tools are also open source.
While AI and LLM development and use is growing at an astonishing rate, so too is the risk associated for it with patent lawsuits. Open Invention Network is working to reduce that risk. The top AI and LLM platform companies participate in the Open Invention Network Community to reduce their opens source software patent risk. With the recent addition of Amazon, participants include Meta, Open AI, Google, Microsoft and IBM, among others.
“Open source is the critical enabler of the new advances in artificial intelligence – especially LLM platforms and development tools,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “The explosion in the use of Python as the number-one AI development tool, in combination with the use of open source-based AI platforms, is driving advances not seen since the commercialization of the Internet. We are proud that so many of our community members are the leading purveyors of AI technology, and we will continue to protect these kinds of open source advances from patent aggressors.”
Open Invention Network’s Linux System definition details what software packages and components are covered by the cross license. OIN updates its Linux System Definition every year to expand the software packages protected under its powerful cross license agreement. As an example, Open Invention Network now has more than 200 Python software components and packages covered by its cross license. Which is particularly relevant given that the Python language and components are the de facto standard for developing, training and inferencing LLM platforms.
Open Invention Network, founded more than 15 years ago to safeguard the open source community from patent aggressors – and funded by Google, IBM /Red Hat, NEC, Philips, Sony, SUSE and Toyota – is taking steps to lower patent risk in ML and AI. With more than 3,800 community members, Open Invention Network is the largest patent non-aggression community in history. Its members share a royalty-free cross license of patents that read on something called its Linux System definition.
By joining the OIN community, which costs nothing, companies that are building and leveraging AI and LLM technology get an inexpensive way to lower their patent risk.
