Open Source AI Fellowship Announced at UN Open Source Week

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is pleased to announce the launch of the Open Source AI Fellowship at UN Open Source Week. The fellowship will support OSI’s work to advance understanding, measure trends, engage in policy, and build consensus around what it means for an AI system to be labeled “Open Source.” Through this program, OSI aims to serve as a hub for Open Source AI by coordinating evidence, partnerships, and engagement on key policy and governance issues.

In May, Gabriel Toscano was selected to serve as the Founding Fellow for his academic and professional achievements, interdisciplinary acumen, and demonstrated commitment to OSI’s mission.  

Grounded in OSI’s new partnership with Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, the two-year fellowship will forward OSI’s goals by creating opportunities for principled, evidence-based, and stakeholder-driven engagement on salient issues in Open Source AI. 

Version 1.0 of the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) was released in October 2024 at All Things Open in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since then, OSI gathered feedback from stakeholders in the community and determined that the organization needs a program that is inclusive of but broader than the OSAID to build research, policy, practice, and community around Open Source AI. 

Fellowship activities include, but are not limited to:

• Thematic Workshops and Working Sessions: Hosting multi-stakeholder workshops focused on: (a) understanding the impact of the Open Source AI Definition, including an exploration of potential updates or revisions, (b) the role of Open Source software in sovereign tech and the AI stack, (c) evolving definitions and policy implications of Open Source AI, and (d) expanding awareness of Open Source solutions to foster access to AI and digital public goods.
• Development of a Global Research Agenda: Growing our partnership with Open Forum Europe, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund to build the Open Technology Research Network, established in November 2025. 
• Policy and Research Analysis: Tracking global AI policy and governance developments, mapping their alignment and divergence from OSAID principles.

OSI is partnering with academic, civil society, and industry organizations to advance the freedom to use, study, share, and modify AI systems. These efforts will strengthen OSI’s role as a bridge between Open Source practice and AI policy, supporting informed debate, transparent standards, and actionable policy recommendations.

We are grateful to Duke University, with launch sponsorship from Red Hat, AWS, Google, Automattic and Mozilla, for making this work possible. Organizations interested in supporting the fellowship should contact OSI Executive Director Duane O’Brien at fellowship@opensource.org.

For additional details about the fellowship, please read the Open Source Initiative’s press release.

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