Commons AI Conference Paris 2025

10 December 2025

CNIT FOREST 2 Place de la Défense, 92092 Puteaux

Commons AI : a community-based approach to AI 10 December 11:20am to 5:55pm

The increased use of generative AI has brought to light areas of fragility and tension within our digital societies, such as the concentration of power, threats to personal data and the homogenisation of knowledge.

In light of the risks posed by the dominance of a few AI models and the dangers of exploiting freely accessible web resources, there is a growing consensus within open-source communities and digital commons to address these issues and develop AI that respects the resources used, the communities involved and end users.

The aim of this inaugural Commons AI conference is to review initiatives that aim to develop AI using an open, commons-based approach. We will explore the findings that have already been made and consider how to consolidate and pool these initiatives.

Program (in progress) Session 1 : Ressources - will address the following question: what are the resource needs of communities to produce open, ethical, and inclusive AI? How can different degrees of openness be articulated according to the components of AI (data, models and algorithms)? What open and sustainable infrastructures are available to support these projects?

Session 2 Communities : How are communities organised to bring together diverse actors in order to support and maintain AI as a commons? What contributions does each member make? What economic balances have been found? How can different profiles (e.g. developers, data curators and users) be brought into dialogue?

Session 3 Governance: What governance elements have been implemented, or need to be established, to help develop these communities and promote the implementation of these AI models using a commons approach? What regulatory mechanisms are available, whether regulatory or community-based (licences, charters, etc.)?

A summary document outlining the key points presented and some concrete avenues for collective action will be produced following this day.