There is a need to develop alternatives that are publicly funded, driven by a public-interest mission, and overseen by democratically elected institutions. By proposing a mission to build a “CERN for AI”, the LAION researchers argue that a strong role for the public sector is needed to ensure public interest in this field. The petition argues for a democratization of AI technologies in a double sense: 1) through democratic oversight of their development, and 2) the democratization of the technology itself through its open sourcing. (2024) source Unverified