Commons-AI Conference

1st edition : A community based approach for AI (2025)

The Commons AI conference – a community based approach for AI – is part of the Future of Software Technologies Conference (9, 10, 11 December 2025) at CNIT FOREST La Defense.

Abstract

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.

There have been numerous initiatives at different levels, such as setting up infrastructure to host open-source AI projects, creating an LLM Open Source, using open training data, reflecting on data governance in commons approaches, and calling for regulation.

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!

Commons AI Program

Three sessions was offered throughout the day, each examining one of the three main components of a common: resources, community and governance.

Session 1 – Ressources to produce open, ethical, and inclusive AI

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?

OpenLLM France: Building transparent and open AI with a French twist

Julie Hunter, Senior Researcher, R&D Team, Linagora

• audio
• presentation

Open data flows: rethinking AI infrastructure after the synthetic turn

Pierre-Carl Langlais, Co-founder, Pleias

• audio
• presentation

Data Spaces and Digital Commons: Building a Responsible, Transparent, and Inclusive AI Market

Bertrand Monthubert, President, Ekitia and Pauline Zordan, Lawyer, Ekitia

• audio
• presentation

What does it take to build effective AI systems for mapping that improve the environment?

Bertrand Pailhes, Head of Data Mapping, IGN

• audio
• presentation

Round Table Discussion

Facilitator: Ramya Chandrasekhar, Researcher, CNRS

Session 2 – Governance and regulatory mechanisms

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.)?

Legal frictions for the re-use of the open web for AI training

Ramya Chandrasekhar, Researcher, CNRS

• audio
• presentation

AI Data governance: The fiduciary model as a path to collective and controlled value Creation

Vincent Bachelet, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Inno3

• audio
• presentation

Making data commons a prerequisite for the use of artificial intelligence

Jean Cattan, Head of the National Initiative AI Café

Probabl.ai’s governance and revenue model: a critical open-source AI commons

Yann Lechelle, CEO, Probabl

Round Table Discussion

Facilitator: Benjamin Jean, Founder and President, Inno3

Session 3 – Communities, contribution and dialogue

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?

When communities and industry cooperate: towards sustainable AI

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, President, VideoLAN / CEO Kyber / Tech Fellow Scaleway

Une IA d’intérêt général indépendante des GAFAM : quels rôles pour les communautés ? (in French)

Round table featuring:

Jean-Marc Borredon, Director of Communication, Ville d’Annemasse
Raphaël Bournhonesque, Machine Learning Engineer, Open Food Facts
Jeanne Brétecher, Founder and Director, Social Good Accelerator
Pierre-Yves Gosset, Digital Services Coordinator, Framasoft
Jean-Philippe Clément, Deputy Director General, Ville de Paris

• audio
• presentation

Authors and acknowledgment

Coordination : Celya Gruson Daniel and Benjamin Jean (Inno3) Host : FOST organisers (Medhid Medjaoui and Oriane Durand)

License

Content is under Licence CC BY SA 4.0