The benefits of open-source AI: open-source benefits education

In this last post about the benefits of open-source AI, we discuss how open-source AI can further educational goals and enables better training of AI scientists.

Educating researchers

As discussed in our post on research, open-source principles encourage the dissemination of knowledge about AI through the publication of peer-reviewed papers and thoroughly-documented training procedures and data. It is critical for researchers to stay up-to-date with and discuss advances in the field when developing AI models, and through encouraging open dissemination of data, open-source supports this.

Educating students

Open-source AI models are also a powerful tool for training the next generation of AI scientists. Reproducing small language models can be a great way to teach students how language models work, something we have experienced first-hand in out curricula at the Radboud University Nijmegen. In the course Transformer-Based Models, students are encouraged to replicate a small transformer-based language model, allowing them to get hands-on experience with the transformer architecture. By publishing small models in an accessible manner, open-source model creators thus lower the barrier for learning about the often esoteric mechanics behind AI technologies.

Conclusion

Open-source models allow for great opportunities for learning, both for experienced developers and for future AI scientists. By furthering open-source in AI, we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in AI, and has the opportunity to contribute to its ever-evolving ecosystem.

With this series of blog posts, we hope to have provided the reader with a good overview of the various benefits which open-source models provide. The take-away message is that open-source models bring with them a large number of benefits, and publishing models in an open-source manner benefits ecosystem stakeholders in a wide variety of ways. Indeed, we hope more entities in the ecosystem this message to heart and release their models in a fully open way.