How We Build NYC: The Commercial, Policy, and Public Cases for Open Source AI
Open models are winning customers. Whether an American open ecosystem survives depends on legislators, deployers, and a public that hasn’t heard what’s in it for them.
Why now
Open models are in production. Startups build on them. Hospitals, banks, and other enterprises run them inside their own systems.
The case for open models is made mostly to people who already agree, or lost in online open-vs-closed arguments.
Few of the legislators taking up AI bills in 2027 have heard it.
Enterprise buyers decide on open models every day. Understanding what drives those decisions would strengthen markets and the rules written for them.
The public increasingly disapproves of AI in any form. The September White House pledge signed by the large tech incumbents reflected that, but said nothing about open models.
Many of the leading open models are now Chinese. That raises national security questions, and leaves it open who will pay for the American alternatives.
We believe in an open ecosystem that benefits the American people in terms they can check and understand. We are working out what that case sounds like to people outside tech, and what builders owe in return.
What we will cover
How founders decided on open, closed, and hybrid stacks, and what they take on voluntarily
How regulated enterprises evaluate open and multi-model systems when they buy, and what we can make public from that
Who pays for the next frontier American open model, and where investors see value once good models are commodities
How the 2027 state bills might treat a company that fine-tunes and deploys an open model
The safety and national security case against open weights, answered on the merits (“Closed models can be misused too” is not an answer)
What the American people get from an open ecosystem, and what would win it more allies
Speakers
Quinn Donohue, Head of Enterprise, Vals AI
Adam Mullinax, Partner, Mozilla Ventures
Maneesha Mithal, Partner, Wilson Sonsini
More speakers to be announced soon
Select organizations joining us (and counting):
Enterprise: Regeneron, TD Bank, UTA, YouGov
Venture investors: New York Life Ventures, ex/ante, Rebel One, Blackhorn Ventures
Institutional investors and LPs: Trinity Church NYC, Zevin Asset Management
Policy, civil society, and research: Federation of American Scientists, Future of Life Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Burning Glass Institute, MIT
Who this is for
Founders running open, closed, and hybrid stacks
Enterprise buyers in finance, health, and media
Venture investors
Technology leaders at public institutions serving millions of New Yorkers
Policymakers
Labor and civil society leaders who shape the rules for AI
Not the people you saw at last week’s AI conference. Come to mix it up.
What comes out of the convening
Takeaways published in December, without attribution
Input to RIL’s policy education work in state capitals and Washington in 2027
Possible public guidance on responsible use of open source AI
Details
Wednesday, November 18. 1:30 to 5:00 PM. Reception to follow.
Lightning talks, firesides, and cross-sector conversations under Chatham House Rule.
Seats are limited. Request a seat and we will confirm within a few days.
About RIL
Responsible Innovation Labs is a nonprofit that helps startups build technology responsibly from the start. Founded by early Stripe leaders and backed by a coalition of venture firms, philanthropies, and former operators, RIL works with founders across the country. How We Build has put founders in a room with U.S. Senators, members of Congress, state and local officials, national security leaders, enterprise leaders, civil society, labor, and Big Tech. RIL is a 501(c)(3).