Thorsten Glaser & Open Source Initiative (OSI) resignations due to AI whitewashing
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
The Techrights bloggers have just started a new series about the downfall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). This is their first post about it. Here is some hard evidence to go with it.
Techrights cites the involvement of Microsoft and that has also been a frequent theme of conflict in Debian. Microsoft has been revealed in proximity to other vendettas and attacks on volunteers and our family members.
OSI started as an offshoot of Debian. Therefore, to analyze the crisis, it is important to go back through the widely leaked debian-private messages from the 1990s. There are close to 20,000 debian-private messages that have already been leaked and I feel it is really vital to go back to the promises made at the beginning and create an index to those messages that are most relevant.
It is useful to browse through the history of OSI's public communications, including Mastodon, other social media and the historic artifacts on mailing lists.
On 21 July 2023 Thorsten Glaser wrote a resignation from the OSI. When people resign from these groups, it is not uncommon for their resignation message to be intercepted and deleted. Sometimes the bullies in charge spread a rumor that the person was expelled. If somebody resigns in disgust, that is nothing like being expelled. The resignation is not an act of wrongdoing, it is an act of leadership. In hindsight, it looks like Glaser was totally right about the toxic culture and we all benefit from the fact that he wrote down the reasons for his resignation.
Subject: [License-discuss] resignation in protest Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 02:49:44 +0000 (UTC) From: Thorsten Glaser <tg@mirbsd.de> Reply-To: license-discuss@lists.opensource.org To: license-discuss@lists.opensource.org
Dear OSI,
I hereby resign under protest from also the licence discuss list. This is protesting both your recent biased process towards judging so-called “AI” and the way your members treat multiple high-profile community leaders, including rejecting their opinion offhand due to the aforementioned bias despite at the same time pretending to be collecting community feedback.
Indeed, when your Executive Director actively promotes private use of technology, hand-waving away security issues, and telling people to “talk to AI developers”, this sounds like not only has the OSI lost its goals, but also like those news outlets giving conspiracy theorists the same amount of platform/recognisation as actual experts in their area of expertise.
Stop it before you make yourself obsolete.
I ask that other concerned individuals also speak out, perhaps in a form and forum appropriate (but which that is I don’t know given that OSI members just refuse to engage anywhere concerns are raised, without giving an appropriate feedback medium).
Goodbye, //mirabilos -- I believe no one can invent an algorithm. One just happens to hit upon it when God enlightens him. Or only God invents algorithms, we merely copy them. If you don't believe in God, just consider God as Nature if you won't deny existence. -- Coywolf Qi Hunt
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Please see the chronological history of how the Debian harassment and abuse culture evolved. █