FTC’s Khan Backs Open AI Models in Bid to Avoid Monopolies

Open artificial intelligence models that allow developers to customize them with few restrictions are more likely to promote competition, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan said, weighing in on a key debate within the industry.

“There’s tremendous potential for open-weight models to promote competition,” Khan said Thursday in San Francisco at startup incubator Y Combinator. “Open-weight models can liberate startups from the arbitrary whims of closed developers and cloud gatekeepers.”

“Open-weight” models disclose what an AI model picked up and was tweaked on during its training process. That allows developers to better customize them and makes them more accessible ...