Artificial Intelligence beyond the hype
Why low cost fully open source local LLMs matter for policy, research and industry The contemporary debate on artificial intelligence is polarized. On one side, industry leaders predict the imminent arrival of superintelligence and massive cognitive acceleration. On the other, critics reduce large language models to sophisticated text prediction engines devoid of understanding. Evidence from […]
Open Source AI Beyond Scale
European low cost, open source local LLMs as a strategic alternative The global AI narrative remains focused on ever larger language models, demanding massive computational resources and reinforcing dependence on a handful of providers. As critics such as Gary Marcus have argued, this path leads to diminishing returns without resolving fundamental issues of reasoning and […]
The value of open source AI image generation projects
From visual appeal to knowledge, transparency, and digital commons Over the past decade, AI-based image generation has evolved from an experimental research topic into a foundational technology for education, science, culture, and the creative industries. Within this landscape, open source projects play a decisive role, not merely as alternatives to proprietary platforms, but as vehicles […]
Can Machines Be Conscious?
Scientific Models and Philosophical Limits of Artificial Consciousness The rapid progress of artificial intelligence has revived one of the most profound questions in the philosophy of mind: can a machine genuinely be conscious, or does it merely simulate the outward signs of consciousness? As contemporary AI systems display increasingly sophisticated linguistic and cognitive behavior, the […]
From German Commons to Greek Commons
A policy case for Greek as a national and European language data infrastructure Large language models depend on vast amounts of text, but scale without legal clarity produces fragile systems. Datasets built on opaque web crawling cannot guarantee lawful reuse, redistribution, or long-term sustainability. The German Commons provides a clear alternative: 154.56 billion tokens of […]
Epistemological fault lines between human and artificial intelligence
When linguistic plausibility replaces judgment and why this is a governance issue Large language models are widely described as artificial intelligence because their outputs resemble human reasoning. This resemblance, however, is largely superficial. As argued by Quattrociocchi, Capraro, and Perc, LLMs do not form beliefs about the world. They are stochastic pattern completion systems that […]
Language corpora and Text Encoding Initiative(TEI)
Open standards for documented linguistic knowledge Language corpora have become a foundational infrastructure for linguistics, natural language processing, and contemporary artificial intelligence. The term corpus does not merely denote a collection of texts but implies deliberate selection, structuring, and documentation according to explicit design criteria. Within this context, the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines provide a […]
Beyond Scaling: Rethinking AI for People, Planet and Science
When bigger stops being better For years, the slogan “scale is all you need” captured the dominant mindset in AI. The recipe sounded simple: more data, more compute, larger models, and general intelligence would somehow emerge. That story is now visibly cracking. Even top conferences highlight how performance gains are slowing down while fundamental weaknesses […]
Synthetic Data, Real Risks: Why AI Must Be Trained on High-Quality Open Data
A seductive solution with hidden dangers Synthetic data is often presented as a clever fix for three persistent challenges in machine learning: data scarcity, unfair training distributions and privacy restrictions. At the same time, some argue it could democratise AI development by reducing dependence on large proprietary datasets held by a few dominant companies. But […]
Apertus AI: A Fully Open Multilingual LLM for Local and Customized Deployment
Apertus AI is one of the most transparent and technically mature efforts to build a fully open-source large language model. Developed in Switzerland and released together with its source code, training documentation and model weights, it offers an unprecedented level of reproducibility and independence from closed ecosystems. This makes it ideal for researchers, public-sector institutions […]
Building a Fully Open Greek LLM: A Three-Millennia Language Model Powered by Open Data Infrastructure
The rapid evolution of fully open large language models represents a transformative moment for countries that possess rich linguistic and cultural heritage. Over the past two years, the global AI community has shown that high-performance LLMs can be built openly, with transparent pipelines, published datasets and weights, and licenses that support both research and commercial […]
The EU’s Data Union Strategy Through a MyData Lens, Why Europe Needs a Human-Centric, Not Only Industrial, Data Economy
Beyond Data Access: Who Truly Benefits? The European Commission’s new Data Union Strategy aims to expand access to high-quality data for Artificial Intelligence, simplify data rules, and strengthen the EU’s global position in cross-border data flows. It presents a compelling vision: more data for innovation, lower compliance costs for SMEs, high-value resources for researchers, and […]