Our society’s interplanetary ambitions now face a crucial challenge: the ability to design and construct living infrastructures that enable humans to transcend earthly boundaries and settle in environments previously deemed inhospitable. Europe, heir to a centuries-old tradition of explorers and innovators, is preparing to play a leading role in this new phase of human history.

The growing concerns surrounding the use of centralised and proprietary artificial intelligence find a possible solution in the open source universe — a horizon of hope for building more transparent, ethical, and community-driven tools. But what lies behind the expression “open source artificial intelligence models”, and who are the actors responsible for regulating and governing the growth of these innovative tools?

As is now well known, the recent rise of artificial intelligence stems from the convergence of two key factors: the vast amounts of data generated by contemporary digital life—readily available online—and the ongoing advancement of computational power.
While the accumulation of data is an intuitive phenomenon, rooted in our daily experience, the evolution of computing capabilities follows more complex and less tangible dynamics. Yet these are crucial to fully understanding the nature and limitations of AI.