Office space meme:
“If y’all could stop calling an LLM “open source” just because they published the weights… that would be great.”
I think a more appropriate analogy is if you make an open source game. With the game you have made textures, because what is a game without textured surfaces? You include the binary jpeg images along with the source code.
You’ve made the textures with photoshop, which is a closed source application. The textures also features elements of stock photos. You don’t provide the original stock photos.
Anyone playing the game is free to replace the textures with their own. The game will have a different feel, but it’s still a playable game. Anyone is also free to modify the existing textures.
Would you consider this game closed source?
Would an open-source Windows installer make it open-source? After all, you can replace its .dll files and modify the registry. I guess PrismLauncher also makes Minecraft open-source, you can replace the textures there as well.
If the installer is open source, then that part is open source. It’s maybe not as useful, because it relies on proprietary software to work. On the other hand, so does emulators like Dolphin.
Windows is not open source just because it’s possible to change dll files. Minecraft is not open source just because it’s possible to modify its textures.
Model weights isn’t the equivalent to a proprietary DLL or GameCube ROM. Anyone is free to modify and distribute the model weights however they like - and people are already doing it. Soon enough we will see variations of the model without the Chinese censor for example.
I’m going to take your point to the extreme.
It’s only open source if the camera that took the picture that is used in the stock image that was used to create the texture is open source.
You used a fully mechanical camera and chemical flash powder? Better publish that design patent and include the chemistry of the flash powder!
