Two dozen companies have come together to call for a major overhaul of the US government's approach to artificial intelligence. The open letter, published today in PDF format, is signed by a diverse range of organizations, including direct competitors such as Meta and Microsoft, as well as non-traditional players like crowd-striking security firm CrowdStrike and data analytics company Hugging Face.
The companies are united behind the idea that their industry's most powerful technology - what they call "open-weight AI" models - needs to be protected from what they see as a threat. These models are crucial to many applications, including facial recognition, predictive policing, and medical diagnosis, but their proliferation has raised concerns about data ownership and liability.
The letter is part of a growing movement in the tech industry to push for greater regulation and oversight of AI development and deployment. While some have argued that stricter controls would stifle innovation, others see it as necessary to prevent unintended consequences. The open letter's call for action comes as policymakers are set to consider new legislation on the issue.