Blog
Total news: 2
How design helped OpenAI transition from niche to mainstream
With AI still one of the biggest talking points of the present – recently crowned the “word of the year” by Collins Dictionary – many flock to try each new product, whether for a bit of fun or to more seriously assess how it might impact their day-to-day lives.But the products for which OpenAI is best known – Dall-E and ChatGPT – were not OpenAI’s original focus. When founded in 2015 – by current CEO Sam Altman as well as Elon Musk, Carlos Virella, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman and Wojciech Zaremba – it was a research-focused non-profit, but by 2019 the company transitioned to a for-profit model. “At some point they realised they needed to raise more money and they created a product arm”, says Mark Jarecke, New York managing director of design agency Area 17, which has been working with the company on its branding and website since December 2021. Earlier in 2021, OpenAI had released text-to-image generator Dall-E and was gearing up to release ChatGPT in 2022. To match up with the growth in audience these products would bring, Area 17 was tasked “to prepare OpenAI for being a more public-facing company”, Jarecke says. “It was going to be getting a lot of attention, so this was really a moment for [OpenAI] to define itself”. Drawing on OpenAI’s original focus on the safe development of AI, the company still wanted to be “strongly defending” this notion, Jarecke says, as well as emphasising “the idea of precision: they had to be the most accurate”, he adds. Area 17 also conducted desk, interview and qualitative research to understand the new audiences that would interact with OpenAI’s more public-facing incarnation – including corporates, researchers and product users.
Date: 2024-01-23
Category: Design
Open source wins concessions in new EU cyber law
The European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) has undergone substantial revisions, bringing relief to the open-source community. Back in April, the Python Software Foundation (PSF) had expressed concerns about potential repercussions for CPython and PyPI if the initial form of CRA were to be enacted. The primary worry was that, in the course of providing open-source software, the PSF and the Python community might assume legal responsibility for security issues in products built using the code components they provide freely. Seeking clarity, the PSF called for language exempting public software repositories – such as PyPI – from legal responsibilities. The good news is that the final text of the CRA, solidified on December 1st, introduces the concept of an “open source steward.” This term refers to any legal entity dedicated to providing sustained support for the development of specific products with qualifying free and open-source software elements, ensuring their viability for commercial activities. Crucially, the revised text demonstrates a clearer understanding of how open-source software operates and its value within the broader software development ecosystem. It explicitly states that the provision of free and open-source software products without monetisation is not considered a commercial activity. While this marks a positive step forward, the Python community remains vigilant. The notion of an “open source steward” is a novel concept in European law, necessitating monitoring to ensure its implementation aligns with the intent and realities of open-source development. Additionally, ongoing attention is required as other legislative pieces – such as the Product Liability Directive – may impact the Python ecosystem. The PSF has extended gratitude to Open Forum Europe (OFE) – particularly Ciarán O’Riordan – for facilitating collaboration within the FOSS community. The PSF says OFE’s coordination efforts played a crucial role in ensuring that its concerns were effectively communicated to legislators.
Date: 2024-01-15
Category: Programming