State of Open: The UK in 2024
Phase Four: “AI Openness: End of Year Update 2024” Report
Released on 20 December 2024
OpenUK’s last word on AI and openness in 2024. This year-end update captures an unprecedented year of AI innovation, from Generative to Agentic AI, with thought leadership from the founder of AutoGPT (the fastest growing open source repository in the world), the first output of OpenUK’s AI Advisory Board, a global policy and legal update, the latest data on the UK’s position in AI that is open, and case studies of AutoGPT and Macrocosmos.
Report Includes:
Introduction and Conclusion
- Introduction: AI Openness, The Next Steps, Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
- Conclusion, Dr Jennifer Barth, Research Director, OpenUK
Thought Leadership
- Agents, Toran Bruce Richards, Founder and CEO, AutoGPT
- A Reflection on AI, Matt Barker, OpenUK Entrepreneur in Residence
- Global AI Policy Update, Ben Brooks, Harvard Research Fellow and OpenUK AI Advisory Board Member
AI Advisory Board
- The OpenUK AI Advisory Board AI Glossary, the Board’s first output, produced under the leadership of its first Chair, Professor Neil Lawrence
Case Studies
- AutoGPT, the Agentic AI platform released in September 2024
- Macrocosmos
Data and Policy
- The global data on openness in AI: top UK AI repositories, the UK versus the EU and the world, the Tortoise Index and Stanford AI Index 2024
- Legal update: the EU AI Act (including its application to Northern Ireland), the UK and US approaches
- Global AI Summits: Bletchley Park 2023, Korea 2024 and the road to Paris 2025
- Literature review: GitHub Octoverse, Linux Foundation, Demos, AI Alliance and more
Executive Summary
This report sets out a year-end update on the progress made across AI in 2024, a year that will be remembered as one of the most significant years of innovation and technology shift of our time.
From Generative to Agentic AI
- 2024 saw the market begin its shift from LLMs to Agentic AI; Scotland-based AutoGPT, with 169,000 GitHub stars, remained the fastest growing open source repository in the world
- Toran Bruce Richards: “Keeping Agents open and accessible means empowering everyone to achieve more, no matter their resources”
The definition question
- The Open Source Initiative delivered its proposed Open Source AI Definition, but only around 20 companies and 100 individuals registered support; the Free Software Foundation began work on a second definition
- Disaggregation approaches from Stanford, the Linux Foundation and Radboud University assess AI’s components instead, clarity matters most where legislation like the EU AI Act grants open source exemptions
- New terms such as “open access AI” emerged to avoid confusion and allegations of open washing
What the data shows
- GitHub reported a 59% increase in generative AI projects and a tripling of GitHub stars for AI-related repositories
- France pushed ahead of the UK to number one in Europe in AI that is open, widely attributed to President Macron’s pro-open-source policies, leaving the UK second in Europe
- The UK ranks fourth globally in AI capability and is emerging as a leader in open source AI innovation, despite competition from the US and China
The policy agenda
- The EU AI Act comes into force in 2025, with the unresolved challenge of its application to Northern Ireland post-Brexit
- The UK launched its 10-week Copyright and AI consultation, balancing the Creative Industries and AI innovation; the UK AI Bill and the House of Commons LLM Inquiry Report were expected early in 2025
- France’s AI Action Summit (10 February 2025) was set to carry the openness conversation onto the global stage
Press Release and Related Press
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