Today, the Open Source Initiative has released its first official definition of Open Source AI. This is an important milestone. Let me explain why.

Why Open Source matters

In a world where speech depends on software, free speech depends on free software.

The key tenet of open source is is that it puts the user in control. Software is ever growing in complexity and importance in our society. Software is how we do our work, how we communicate, how we pay, how we access information. When software is a black box, subject to subtle (or not so much) manipulation, users are at risk.

Risks of AI

AI brings these risks to an entirely new level. Not only because it makes decisions that are often entirely intransparent, but also because its easy, human like interface often lulls users to trust it far more than deserved.

The big AI firms have done their level best to ensure the attention of the public around risks with AI were aimed at existential, contrived notions akin to Skynet, the AI in the movie series Terminator, scenarios where AI would take over the world. In reality, the risks associated with AI are far more mundane. Surveillance, bias, explosive energy usage and job losses are the concerns we should focus on.

Need for control

And, just like with software, what matters is control. Who controls the AI, who makes decisions about what it can and can’t do, what goes in and what does not. With control, we can address the real risks of AI. Without control, we can simply hope that the billion dollar companies do the right thing.

They haven’t in the past. So we need Open Source AI. AI that that gives users the ability to study and modify the AI models that govern their lives.

Users of AI solutions deserve transparency and control, which is why we introduced our Ethical AI rating in early 2023. Now, we see big tech firms trying to hijack the term open source AI. We fully endorse the creation of a clear definition of open source AI by the community to protect users and the market.

Frank Karlitschek

CEO and fouder of Nextcloud

The wider open source community has picked up the gauntlet as well, and after extensive consultation with the community, today the OSI has announced an official definition of Open Source AI. This will help users, from private users, to governments, research institutes, hospitals and businesses, to make decisions what systems they can trust.

So, today, It is a first step in a journey and we are glad to be a part of it. Nextcloud has formally endorsed the definition, even if we think there is room for improvement. We will use it as a basis for our Ethical AI Rating. Our rating is a bit more granular and also more critical in some areas – for example, when it comes to data, we believe it should be always fully available – and thus, for now, we will keep using it, as it fits the use cases of our users more.

We look forward to your input, both on the OSI definition – on the road to a 2.0 – and on our AI rating.

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3 years after a formal antitrust complaint by Nextcloud and 30 other European tech companies the German antitrust authorities (“Bundeskartellamt”) have announced that Microsoft is now “subject to extended abuse control” as they are determined to be of “paramount significance across markets”. The good news, quoting their announcement:

Based on this provision, the Bundeskartellamt can prohibit companies which have such positions of power from engaging in anti-competitive practices.

As you might be aware, in 2021 we assembled a coalition of like minded European tech companies and filed a complaint with the European Commission’s antitrust authorities. There has been virtually no movement on that for years. We also filed a complaint with the German antitrust authority, which in 2023 announced the start of an investigation to determine if Microsoft might have a lot of market power. After a year and a half, they are now at that point. An investigation thus has not been started, but the doors are open for them to look into the actual behaviour of the tech giant from Redmond.

3 years of more anticompetitive behaviour from Microsoft

In the mean time, Microsoft has increased its anti-competitive behaviour. The company proceeded with integrating OneDrive deeper into Windows and making it harder to use Windows without OneDrive account. It also blocked attempts by Nextcloud to gain access to interoperability API’s that would allow Nextcloud users to save files to Nextcloud from Microsoft Office apps. And it accidentally uploaded user files to OneDrive even if those users didn’t want it to do that.

The European Commission has made little progress on the complaint we filed. Interestingly, a later complaint by another American big tech firm, Salesforce (Slack) about Teams bundling with Microsoft 365 did result in a relatively prompt investigation.

Quoting our CEO and founder, Frank, from our press release:

“Over the past three years, Nextcloud has submitted extensive documentation and other evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Microsoft. The Federal Cartel Office today determined that Microsoft has particular market power. This is an important step to prohibit future anti-competitive practices by the US company.

This is an important step forward, and we look forward to an investigation.

The post Germany recognises Microsoft as tech giant appeared first on Nextcloud.

3 years after a formal antitrust complaint by Nextcloud and 30 other European tech companies the German antitrust authorities (“Bundeskartellamt”) have announced that Microsoft is now “subject to extended abuse control” as they are determined to be of “paramount significance across markets”. The good news, quoting their announcement:

Based on this provision, the Bundeskartellamt can prohibit companies which have such positions of power from engaging in anti-competitive practices.

As you might be aware, in 2021 we assembled a coalition of like minded European tech companies and filed a complaint with the European Commission’s antitrust authorities. There has been virtually no movement on that for years. We also filed a complaint with the German antitrust authority, which in 2023 announced the start of an investigation to determine if Microsoft might have a lot of market power. After a year and a half, they are now at that point. An investigation thus has not been started, but the doors are open for them to look into the actual behaviour of the tech giant from Redmond.

3 years of more anticompetitive behaviour from Microsoft

In the mean time, Microsoft has increased its anti-competitive behaviour. The company proceeded with integrating OneDrive deeper into Windows and making it harder to use Windows without OneDrive account. It also blocked attempts by Nextcloud to gain access to interoperability API’s that would allow Nextcloud users to save files to Nextcloud from Microsoft Office apps. And it accidentally uploaded user files to OneDrive even if those users didn’t want it to do that.

The European Commission has made little progress on the complaint we filed. Interestingly, a later complaint by another American big tech firm, Salesforce (Slack) about Teams bundling with Microsoft 365 did result in a relatively prompt investigation.

Quoting our CEO and founder, Frank, from our press release:

“Over the past three years, Nextcloud has submitted extensive documentation and other evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Microsoft. The Federal Cartel Office today determined that Microsoft has particular market power. This is an important step to prohibit future anti-competitive practices by the US company.

This is an important step forward, and we look forward to an investigation.

The post Germany recognises Microsoft as tech giant appeared first on Nextcloud.