The Linux Foundation will bring the development of open source software in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data under one roof. As AI and big data can’t exist without the other, the LF AI Foundation and the open ecosystem for big data ODPi are joining forces to this end.
With the creation of LF AI & Data, both communities will now support a growing ecosystem of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and data technologies. AI and big data are inseparable and codependent on each other.
Combining efforts in both spaces would bring developers and projects under a single roof, orchestrated by a single Technical Advisory Council and several committees (Trusted AI, BI & AI), to work together towards building the open source AI & Data ecosystem and accelerating development and innovation.
“LF AI has been growing at the rate of one new project per month, including several data projects,” said Dr. Ibrahim Haddad, LF AI Executive Director. “It is a natural move to bring together the open AI and data communities to enable better interoperability and capabilities across all of our hosted projects and to enable closer collaboration, which has been a proven recipe for building a strong open ecosystem. It will also provide our members greater cost efficiency when supporting our projects. We look forward to supporting innovation in the open source ecosystem focused on AI, Data and Analytics.”
Hosting projects under a single umbrella would enable closer collaboration, integration, and interoperability across projects. According to the Linux Foundation, it is a proven recipe for building strong open ecosystems. At the same time, it would provide a unified guidance for end users on tools, interoperability, integration, standards, and the future of AI, Data and Analytics as its use continues to grow in every industry.
“Over the past 5 years, ODPi has been a part of driving standardization and consolidation in the Big Data and Hadoop ecosystem, as well as becoming a focal point for the data challenges of the enterprises of today such as metadata, governance, and data science,” said John Mertic, Director, ODPi. “Coming together to form LF AI & Data is the next natural step in this mission, enabling greater interoperability to drive both innovation and sustainable growth for key projects.”
LF AI & Data Foundation
LF AI launched two years ago with nine founding members and one hosted project. Today it has 25 members and 20 technical projects. ODPi launched five years ago. It is supported by a roster of industry-leading members. Together, under the LF AI & Data Foundation, there are 22 projects supported by more than 60 companies, 20 universities and more than 1,300 active developers contributing to these projects.
New members of LF AI & Data Foundation include aivancity School for Technology, Business & Society, AlphaBravo, Cloudera, Databricks, Index Analytics, ING Bank, OpenI, Precisely, Peng Cheng Laboratory, SAS Institute, and the Shanghai OpenSource Information Technology Association.
“The future of open source is directly linked to the AI ecosystem and a multitude of data communities,” said Arun Murthy, CPO, Cloudera. “Therefore, it is a natural pairing for LF AI and ODPi to join forces and Cloudera is thrilled to be aiding their efforts in growing the project portfolio to encourage innovation and enable stronger interoperability and collaboration.”
