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Dear Readers,
AI has been at the heart of our start to 2025. And we see a clear shift away from trying to define what open source means in the context of AI to more pragmatically looking at its components and how to manage AI and its safety through open source with a strong focus on ‘public good AI’.
You can read more about the Summit announcements including open source ROOST and the Current AI Foundation, the new Open Weights Definition and the Columbia Convening as well as the Linagora Paris Open Source Summit in our Report.
We kicked 2025 off with an incredible 3rd State of Open Con and will continue 2025 with meet-ups in London and digital meet-ups through the year, with more planned across the UK. As we only have 200 spots please save the date for our Thought Leadership Day at Pembroke College, Cambridge on Wednesday, 14 May 13.00-18.00 and look out for our Roundtables in Parliament. Details of both will be in our next newsletter.
AI Action Summit, Paris
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Amanda went straight on to the AI Action Summit in Paris and you can see our report on that hot off the press at OpenUK AI Action Summit Report.
This includes the new ROOST open source tooling for AI Safety and the Current AI Foundation with $400m in funding and a target of $2.5bn to support Public Good AI
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Policy Outline
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Our first brief policy outline looks at Northern Ireland and the potential conundrum of whether the EU AI Act will apply?
The Irish soft border relates to goods but the Commission is re-characterising software and AI as a good or product with potentially significant implications for NI which has the potential of being subject to two conflicting regimes. We’ll be covering the UK AI Copyright Consultation in our next Policy Outline coming soon!
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State of Open Con 25
SOOCOn25 was a fantastic event. Thanks to the hundreds of people who played an important part in making it so.
Let us know if you would like to be involved as a sponsor or volunteer at SOOCon26 on 3rd – 4th February 2026.
The theme of AI was unavoidable and we set the agenda for the conversation on AI openness and the future of open source in 2025. If you missed any conference talk you can watch it online now and enjoy and share the talks and photos from our photo gallery.
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Blue Plaques
Celebrating global open source leaders with recognition of 20 leaders who participated in the inaugural Blue Plaque Awards at State of Open Con. Our first opportunity to recognise global and UK leadership in open source.
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OpenUK Meetups
We are looking forward to the meetups in 2025.
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Apprentice Meetup#6 Tom Wilkie12 February, 18:00 – 20:30 Red Badger, London
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London Meetup#21 Open Databases26 February, 18:30 – 20:45 Avanade, London
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Visit OpenUK Meetup Space to save the date for 2025 Meetups.
Press
OpenUK CEO “Miss Brock” talks about building digital skills through open source software contributions and participation, and its potential to stem talent flight
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OpenUK CEO Amanda Brock says “we need a clear direction from the current government on AI and openness” if we want to succeed in this article by The London Standard
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Computing Discussing why no AI company has achieved open source’s goals at the State of Open Con in London and Sam Altman’s admission that when it comes to open source OpenAI is on the wrong side of history.
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Adrian Bridgwater nails the issues of the day in open source software and AI openness in his State of Open Con live report
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CEO Amanda Brock joins world leaders, CEOs and civil society at the AI Action Summit
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CEO Amanda Brock sees ROOST open source tools as sees the tools as essential for AI safety, contrasting them with the European Commission’s “cumbersome and complex AI Act.”
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We’re looking forward to a full 2025 and to collaborating with you. President Macron said “Vive l’intelligence Artificial” and we say “Vive open source”!
Best wishes,
Amanda
Amanda Brock, CEO
For information on anything in this newsletter or to get involved, email us.
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OpenUK February 2025 Newsletter 1
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ZDNET met the forkers at State of Open Con and talks about the potential of forking to manage licence shift and how this may impact future of open source software.