Economic benefits of open foundation models
02.08.2024 - 02:55
This study estimates the core economic benefits of open foundation models for businesses in the US economy. This considers profit uplift, operational efficiencies and cost savings in rent reductions for US businesses having access to open foundation models versus closed foundation models.
Estimating the benefits of open foundation models in AI
To inform the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration consultation on “Dual Use Foundation Artificial Intelligence Models With Widely Available Model Weights”, this study estimates the benefits of a ‘diverse’ generative AI ecosystem, where both open and closed foundation models exist and are available to access, against the counterfactual of a ‘restricted’ ecosystem where only closed foundation models are available.
Open foundation models could support faster adoption of generative AI amongst US businesses and provide an additional $1.5 trillion in benefits for them in 2035
The transparency, competition and innovation supported by open foundation models could accelerate the adoption of generative AI by US businesses in 2035
Open models allow developers to access, deploy, and modify the model… which has played a key role in growing developer activity in generative AI
Open foundation models support transparency, competition and innovation, and are likely to drive higher adoption of generative AI across the US economy.
Open model weights allows researchers and authorities to inspect, test, modify and deploy models independently. US IT professionals recognize the security benefits of open source - 90% of US IT executives believe enterprise open source is as secure or more secure than proprietary software.
As seen with other technologies, open sourcing puts downward pressure on costs and gives businesses greater flexibility and choice. The top reason businesses use open source software is its cost competitiveness.
Publishing model weights enables developers to collaborate on fine tuning and crowdsource better, safer models. The number of third-party variant models publicly released to date is over 70,000.
We modeled likely adoption curves for generative AI across the two scenarios: diverse and restricted.
In a diverse future generative AI ecosystem, there are highly-capable open and closed foundation models (similar to the current state). In this scenario, 88% of US businesses adopt foundation models.
In a restricted future generative AI ecosystem, government regulation or other competitive dynamics results in predominantly closed foundation models. In this scenario, 55% of US businesses adopt Generative AI foundation models.
Read our latest posts
Paving the path: Addressing market imbalances to achieve quality and affordable childcare in more places
Our latest report, in partnership with The Front Project, examines how Australia's childcare sector has evolved and the growing imbalances in service provision. Long Day Care (LDC) centres, which form the backbone of Australia's childcare system, have seen supply increase by 69% since 2013. However, this growth has been dominated by for-profit providers and is unevenly distributed. In low SES areas, there are 41% fewer LDC places than in high SES areas. Not-for-profit providers, who deliver higher quality care and charge lower fees on average, have seen their market share decline particularly in metropolitan and gentrifying areas. The report highlights the need for policy intervention to ensure quality and affordable childcare is available to all families.
22 Oct, 2024
Empowering Australia's Digital Future
Mandala's latest research, commissioned by five of Australia’s largest data centre operators – AirTrunk, Amazon Web Services, CDC Data Centres, Microsoft, and NEXTDC, highlights opportunities to enhance skills development, planning processes and renewable energy growth. The report finds new investment in Australian data centre capacity is forecast to top $26 billion by 2030 to meet soaring digital demand.
21 Oct, 2024
Revitalising National Competition Policy
Mandala's submission to the National Competition Policy Unit on Revitalising National Competition Policy, focuses on realigning Australia's legislative settings on competition to meet the current realities of our economy.
4 Oct, 2024
The Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index: The impact of climate change on the Australian tourism industry
Mandala Partners (Mandala) in conjunction with Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) has produced Australia’s first Climate Risk Index for the Australian tourism sector. This report analyses the impact of climate change on Australia’s top tourism sites – including major airports, national parks, beaches and museums – under different Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios.
9 Sep, 2024