[Interview] Rep. Lim Moon-young: The Essence of Sovereign AI Is Securing Alternatives ... We Need to Build an Open Source Ecosystem

IT Daily reported, through an interview with Rep. Lim Moon-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee, that Lim sees open source not as a mere cost-cutting tool but as a strategic asset for securing technological sovereignty and control in the AI era. Lim said open source goes beyond free SW and represents the intellectual accumulation of humanity after digital civilization, as well as a tool that connects world peace.

Lim argued that an open ecosystem that is not dependent on specific Big Tech companies and that can secure technological control is at the core of technological sovereignty in the AI era. He also stressed that, for Korea to secure leadership in AI, open source must be recognized not as a cost-cutting tool but as a core foundation of national technology strategy.

Against that backdrop, this paper met with Rep. Lim Moon-young on the 13th to discuss the open source ecosystem, Sovereign AI, and ways to enhance the value of SW developers. The interview focused on Lim's philosophical and industrial understanding of open source.

Earlier, on the 11th, Rep. Lim delivered a keynote speech at the 'Open Source Summit,' emphasizing the philosophical and industrial value of open source. The photo was taken by reporter Kwon Young-seok.

As AI competition intensifies, concerns are growing over a small number of global Big Tech companies controlling AI models, data, and computing infrastructure. There are also concerns that as dependence on specific corporate platforms and technologies rises, the room for companies and nations to make and operate independent technological choices shrinks.

Regarding this, Lim said that 'technological choice,' meaning freedom from dependence on specific technologies, determines the success or failure of national AI independence, namely 'Sovereign AI.' He explained that the essence of Sovereign AI is not unconditional technological exclusivity, but control over technology and securing alternatives that can be chosen on one's own.

He then said a shift in the domestic industry’s perception of open source is needed. Pointing out that consuming open source only as 'free technology' makes it impossible to build a sustainable ecosystem, he said companies that grow through open source use should give back to the ecosystem. Examples of giving back included donations, developer support, and social contribution agreements, and he stressed the need to establish a virtuous cycle based on such contributions.

The article examines how SW developers' labor value is being assessed in industrial settings by looking at criteria for evaluating the intellectual labor of SW developers, industry practices, and areas for improvement.

In that process, it points out the perception of developers as mere functionaries and explains that this view leads to calculations of SW value based on the number of people and time input.

It also notes that, as a result of that perception, a practice has formed in which development costs are reduced on the grounds of using AI, and it highlights the irrationality of value assessments centered on manpower and time input, as well as cost-cutting practices tied to AI adoption.

Lim then said developers need to be properly recognized as creators of new digital value, and proposed that the National Assembly lay the institutional groundwork for evaluating the public-interest value of contributions to open source communities. Rep. Lim Moon-young also said he would pursue at the National Assembly a system for proper recognition of developers and for evaluating the public-interest value of community contributions.

The article then continues with a Q&A with Lim, and the topic of the questions is the relationship between 'Sovereign AI' and 'open source' in the AI era.

The speaker said it is a misunderstanding to view Sovereign AI and open source as opposing concepts. He explained that the essence of Sovereign AI is not closed-off exclusivity, such as using only domestic technology and excluding foreign technology. He added that the key to Sovereign AI is having control over AI technology and securing alternatives that can be chosen when needed. He also pointed out that a state in which the entire world depends entirely on the models of a specific Big Tech company amounts to the loss of technological sovereignty. He said building an ecosystem of diverse open source models and alternatives to prevent technological lock-in is the most practical foundation of Sovereign AI.

Asked about the difference between 'open weight' AI models and 'open source,' the speaker explained that open weight, which only discloses weights, falls short of true open source in the strict sense. He described open weight as being closer to an 'open binary.' He also said that open weight amounts only to providing usage rights or part of the weights, while the core know-how for building the model and the training data remain inside the company.

As a condition for truly pursuing open source, the speaker proposed open, joint efforts to build international consensus on standards related not only to mere use, but also to verification of training data, model safety, and evaluation criteria. He also assessed that Korea has strong IT capabilities and a world-class manufacturing base. He added that Korea is fully capable of leading the establishment of open norms on the global stage.

The speaker criticized the reality of our society's stinginess in valuing intellectual labor and condemned the practice of evaluating software development costs solely by the time spent. He also pointed to the irrationality of attempts to lower rates on the grounds of using AI, saying the background to such practices is the view that developers are merely functionaries. He then expressed his determination to push for a restructuring of pricing systems to ensure fair compensation for developers' intellectual labor, and said the National Assembly would seek legal and institutional support for that effort.

As one way forward, he raised the need for the public sector not to depend on the technologies of any one company and argued that the most secure way to ensure safety is for the public sector to actively adopt open source. He also emphasized the need to pay fair compensation corresponding to open source adoption.

The speaker said he recently met with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, and proposed the preemptive adoption of open source, with global organizations such as the Linux Foundation as partners, when advancing the National Assembly's AI transformation (AX) project. In response, Speaker Woo sympathized with the proposal and promised to form a National Assembly-level task force (TF). He said related discussions will begin in earnest soon.

The speaker said there is a need to showcase best practices of open source use in the public sector. He also said such public sector cases would help dispel market bias. He set expanding the scope of public procurement as a goal through this effort, and also said it would help build a foundation for the growth of domestic companies and developers.

The speaker expressed deep respect for developers who code through the night and work on contributions. He also predicted that as the AI era fully unfolds, the roles of IT and open source workers will expand.

He also pointed out that the IT industry is not fluent in political and policy language, making it difficult to turn its demands into agenda items. He then asked that field-level policy demands be actively explained to the National Assembly and the government, and expressed his commitment to support developers so that their public-interest contributions receive socially and economically fair recognition.

Source: IT DAILY · Kwon Young-seok
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=240992

References

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