Skip to content

Explain why freedom matters here

This looks like a really good start. One thing I'd recommend including more information on is why the data, model, environment and training set are part of the software. I think that if you are not familiar with deep learning, it might not be obvious. I'm not very familiar with deep learning but here are my understandings; feel free to include something like this if it is right.

The model may appear to be just data, but it actually effects what the software does. As an example, consider software designed to help moderate comments on a website. The model is what drives the decision about a particular comment.

Models are hard or impossible to directly analyze. They aren't source code. The only way you can tell what they do is to either give them inputs and see what result you get or analyze the training data. Someone could build a back door into a model used for authentication; until you tried a particular input you might be unaware that it would always be accepted.

Without the training data and script it is very hard to understand what a model does. It's also impossible to change it. Software freedom is about users being able to change the behavior of software. Imagine the comment moderation software again. Someone running a sex-positive community is likely to want very different moderation behavior than someone running a online space that is intended to be safe for kids. Without the data and training script, a user is effectively starting over when they need to change the behavior of the model.