BigScience OpenRAIL-M License

The OpenRAIL approach taken by the RAIL Initiative in collaboration with BigScience is informed and inspired by initiatives such as BigScience, Open Source, and Creative Commons. The 2 main features of an OpenRAIL license are:

Open: these licenses allow royalty-free access and flexible downstream use and re-distribution of the licensed material, and distribution of any derivatives of it.

Responsible: OpenRAIL licenses embed a specific set of restrictions for the use of the licensed AI artifact in identified critical scenarios. Use-based restrictions are informed by an evidence-based approach to ML development and use limitations which forces to draw a line between promoting wide access and use of ML against potential social costs stemming from harmful uses of the openly licensed AI artifact. Therefore, while benefiting from an open access to the ML model, the user will not be able to use the model for the specified restricted scenarios.

The integration of use-based restrictions clauses into open AI licenses brings up the ability to better control the use of AI artifacts and the capacity of enforcement to the licensor of the ML model, standing up for a responsible use of the released AI artifact, in case a misuse of the model is identified. If behavioral-use restrictions were not present in open AI licenses, how would licensors even begin to think about responsible use-related legal tools when openly releasing their AI artifacts? OpenRAILs and RAILs are the first step towards enabling ethics-informed behavioral restrictions.

And even before thinking about enforcement, use-based restriction clauses might act as a deterrent for potential users to misuse the model (i.e., dissuasive effect). However, the mere presence of use-based restrictions might not be enough to ensure that potential misuses of the released AI artifact won’t happen. This is why OpenRAILs require downstream adoption of the use-based restrictions by subsequent re-distribution and derivatives of the AI artifact, as a means to dissuade users of derivatives of the AI artifact from misusing the latter.

The effect of copyleft-style behavioral-use clauses spreads the requirement from the original licensor on his/her wish and trust on the responsible use of the licensed artifact. Moreover, widespread adoption of behavioral-use clauses gives subsequent distributors of derivative versions of the licensed artifact the ability for a better control of the use of it. From a social perspective, OpenRAILs are a vehicle towards the consolidation of an informed and respectful culture of sharing AI artifacts acknowledging their limitations and the values held by the licensors of the model.

Open licensing is one of the cornerstones of AI innovation. Licenses as social and legal institutions should be well taken care of. They should not be conceived as burdensome legal technical mechanisms, but rather as a communication instrument among AI communities bringing stakeholders together by sharing common messages on how the licensed artifact can be used.