Mozilla CTO:
Open Source and Open Weight AI, Rent or Own?
Mozilla’s CTO explains the difference between open source and open weight models, offers practical advice, and reviews the State of Open Source AI report.
More companies are running open models for everyday AI work to gain control and reduce costs. This episode explores open source and open weight AI with Raffi Krikorian, Mozilla’s Chief Technology Officer, who leads its open source AI strategy and spearheaded Mozilla’s State of Open Source AI report.
What we'll discuss with Raffi:
- Open weight models differ from open source models, and the license terms matter
- Everyday work now runs well on open models for far less money, while frontier models keep an edge on the hardest tasks,
- Procurement, compliance and support decide whether open models reach production in large companies
Watch live on Friday, October 9 at 1:00 PM EDT and ask Raffi Krikorian your questions. Post them in the LinkedIn comments or on Twitter (X) during the show. Michael will read audience questions on air, and Raffi will answer them live.
Related Episodes
Open source AI models now trail the best closed models by only a few points at a fraction of the price, yet large companies are slow to put them into production. In June, after a government export order, the newest frontier models went offline for almost three weeks for every company that rented them.
CXOTalk episode 933 examines what open source and open weight models are, where they beat closed models and where they do not, and how an executive decides between renting and owning AI. Our guest is Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla, which recently published the State of Open Source AI report.
What we will cover:
- What open source AI models are, and how open source differs from open weight
- Where open models are winning and where frontier models are better, from Mozilla’s State of Open Source AI report
- When to rent AI from a closed provider, when to own an open model, and the economics of each
- The risks and limits of open models: procurement and compliance, models from Chinese labs, and the line on what should be open
- Lock-in beyond the model: the memory, tools and data around it, and how companies keep an exit open
- Open source AI as a board-level issue, and the questions boards should ask
ASK YOUR QUESTIONS LIVE
Watch live on Friday, October 9 at 1:00 PM EDT and ask Raffi Krikorian your questions. Post them in the LinkedIn comments or on Twitter (X) during the show. Michael will read audience questions on air, and Raffi will answer them live.
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Episode Participants
Raffi Krikorian is the Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla, where he leads the organization's open-source AI strategy. His career spans some of the most consequential technology deployments of the past two decades: VP of Platform Engineering at Twitter, Director of Uber's Advanced Technologies Center, where he launched the first commercial self-driving fleet, and first-ever CTO of the Democratic National Committee. He also writes Owners Not Renters, a Substack on open source AI, and contributes regularly to The Atlantic.
Michael Krigsman is a globally recognized analyst, strategic advisor, and industry commentator known for his deep business transformation, innovation, and AI leadership expertise. He has presented at industry events worldwide and written extensively on the reasons for IT failures. His work has been referenced in the media over 1,000 times and in more than 50 books and journal articles; his commentary on technology trends and business strategy reaches a global audience.