Open at Intel

AI Development and Guardrails

Ezequiel Lanza and Katherine Druckman from Intel's Open Ecosystem team chat with Daniel Whitenack, founder and CEO of Prediction Guard. They discuss the importance and implementation of guardrails for securing generative AI platforms and cover the operational challenges and security considerations of running AI models, the concept of responsible AI, and practical advice for integrating guardrails into AI workflows. Additionally, the conversation touches on multi-model integrations, open source contributions, and the significance of vendor-neutral frameworks in achieving a secure and efficient AI ecosystem.

00:00 Introduction
01:28 What is Prediction Guard?
03:31 Understanding Guardrails in AI
06:49 Security Risks and Responsible AI
13:30 Open Source and Model Security
19:00 Open Platform for Enterprise AI
20:26 Contributing to Open Source Projects
27:12 Final Thoughts

 

Guest:

Daniel Whitenack (aka Data Dan) is a Ph.D. trained data scientist and founder of Prediction Guard. He has more than ten years of experience developing and deploying machine learning models at scale, and he has built data teams at two startups and an international NGO with 4000+ staff. Daniel co-hosts the Practical AI podcast, has spoken at conferences around the world (ODSC, Applied Machine Learning Days, O’Reilly AI, QCon AI, GopherCon, KubeCon, and more), and occasionally teaches data science/analytics at Purdue University.

The Fork in the Road: Understanding Community Dynamics

Taylor Dolezal from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation discusses his role as the Head of Ecosystem, working closely with end-users implementing CNCF projects. He shares his open source origin story, tracing back to high school programming experiences. We touched on community dynamics, experiences with project forks, and the evolving landscape of AI and its intersection with open source. We also discuss the importance of sustainability in open source communities and the critical role of vendor neutrality.

00:00 Introduction
01:45 Open Source Origin Story
11:04 Project Forks and Community Dynamics
17:20 HashiCorp and OpenTofu: A Fork in the Road
19:46 Navigating the AI Frontier
23:28 The Challenges of AI Standardization
26:17 The Importance of Vendor Neutrality
28:02 Balancing Priorities in Open Source
29:51 Sustaining Open Source Communities

 

Guest:

Taylor Dolezal navigates the cloud native universe with a knack for puns and a keen eye for psychology. Living in the heart of LA, he blends tech innovation with mental insights, one punny cloud at a time. Avid reader, thinker, and cloud whisperer.

Open Source is Critical Infrastructure

In this episode, we chat with Luis Villa, co-founder of Tidelift, about everything from supporting open source maintainers to coding with AI. Luis, a former programmer turned attorney, shares stories from his early days of discovering Linux, to his contributions to various projects and organizations including Mozilla and Wikipedia. We discussed the critical importance of open source software, the challenges faced by maintainers, including burnout, and how Tidelift works toward compensating maintainers. We also explore broader themes about the sustainability of open source projects, the impact of AI on code generation and legal concerns, and the need for a more structured and community-driven approach to long-term project maintenance.

 

00:00 Introduction
03:20 Challenges in Open Source Sustainability
07:43 Tidelift's Role in Supporting Maintainers
14:18 The Future of Open Source and AI
32:44 Optimism and Human Element in Open Source
35:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

Guest:

Luis Villa is co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift. Previously he was a top open source lawyer advising clients, from Fortune 50 companies to leading startups, on product development, open source licensing, and other matters.  Luis is also an experienced open source community leader with organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation, where he served as deputy general counsel and then led the Foundation’s community engagement team. Before the Wikimedia Foundation, he was with Greenberg Traurig, where he counseled clients such as Google on open source licenses and technology transactions, and Mozilla, where he led the revision of the Mozilla Public License.  He has served on the boards at the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation, and been an invited expert on the Patents and Standards Interest Group of the World Wide Web Consortium and the Legal Working Group of OpenStreetMap.  Recent speaking engagements include RedMonk’s Monki Gras developer event, FOSDEM, and as a faculty member at the Practicing Law Institute’s Open Source Software programs. Luis holds a JD from Columbia Law School and studied political science and computer science at Duke University.

 

When You Have to Fork a Project: All About Valkey

In this episode, Madelyn Olson, a maintainer of the Valkey project and an AWS engineer, joins us to discuss the life of an open source maintainer and the experiences surrounding the launch of the Valkey project. We cover the pivotal moments that led to the creation of Valkey, a Redis fork, following the Redis license change. Madelyn also shares insights on the challenges and pressures of being a maintainer, strategies to manage burnout, and the significance of creating a community-driven, open source project. The episode highlights the technical advancements and future directions for Valkey, working to leverage modern hardware, manage large clusters, and expand the extension ecosystem.

 

00:00 Introduction

00:48 Redis License Change and Birth of Valkey

06:17 Maintainer Life and Burnout

14:54 Forking a Repository: When and Why

19:30 Community-Driven Open Source Projects

21:32 Future of Valkey and Closing Remarks

 

Guest:

Madelyn Olson is a co-creator and maintainer of Valkey, a high-performance key-value datastore, and Principal Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS). She focuses on building secure and highly reliable features, with a passion in working with open-source communities.

What is the AI Alliance?

In this episode, Intel's open source AI evangelist Ezequiel Lanza and Dave Nielsen from IBM join the discussion to talk about the AI Alliance, a collaborative initiative formed by IBM and Meta in December 2023. We discussed the importance of openness in AI, how it fosters innovation, community involvement, and ensures AI remains safe and trustworthy. We also covered the significance of community in technology development, and upcoming events such as the Open Source AI Demo Night showcasing innovative AI applications. The episode emphasizes the role of open models in making technology more accessible globally.

00:00 Introduction
00:43 What is the AI Alliance?
04:48 The Importance of Openness in AI
11:47 AI for Good and Community Involvement
15:28 Upcoming Events and How to Get Involved

 

Guests:

	Dave Nielsen represents IBM as the head of community at the AI Alliance, which brings together compute, data, tools, and talent to accelerate and advocate for open innovation in AI. Prior to IBM, Dave led community programs at companies like MongoDB, Harness, Redis and PayPal. Dave is known for creating community events, such as CloudCamp, and for writing the book PayPal Hacks.
	Passionate about helping people discover the exciting world of artificial intelligence, Ezequiel Lanza is a frequent AI conference presenter and the creator of use cases, tutorials, and guides that help developers adopt open source AI tools.

The Burden of Security in Software Maintenance

In this episode, John Kjell, Director of Open Source at TestifySec, discusses his involvement in various open source projects and the intricacies of maintaining such projects. John sheds light on his work with the CNCF and OpenSSF, and the impact of tools like Witness, Archivista, and SLSA. He outlines the challenges maintainers face, especially around security, and offers insights into balancing professional and personal responsibilities. John also explores the significance of community, inclusivity, and a secure developer identity in open source ecosystems.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background
01:20 Maintainer Burnout and Security Challenges
04:41 Balancing Multiple Projects and Personal Life
07:15 Security Risks in Smaller Projects
10:13 Developer Identity and Reputation
19:37 Open Source Origin Story and Community Involvement
24:11 Optimism for the Future of Open Source Security

Resources:

Enhancing Open Source Security: Introducing Siren by OpenSSF – Open Source Security Foundation

Security at Every Step: Why Software Supply Chains Are Critical

Guest:

John Kjell is responsible for open source at TestifySec, a software supply chain security startup. He is a maintainer for the Witness and Archivista sub-projects under in-toto. Additionally, John is an active contributor to CNCF's TAG Security and multiple projects within the OpenSSF. Before TestifySec, John was an engineering leader at VMware, helping to bring supply chain security features to the Tanzu Application Platform.

Dosu: An AI Tool for Maintaining Code

In this episode, Devin Stein, founder of Dosu, shares his journey from being an active open source user and maintainer to solving maintainer burnout with Dosu, a GitHub app designed to automate and streamline open source project management. He discusses key pain points faced by maintainers, the innovative use of LLMs to enhance task automation, and his partnership with the CNCF to support various projects. Stein reflects on the broader impact of AI in open source maintenance, emphasizing the potential to enhance efficiency and community engagement while preserving the human element in open source development.

 

00:00 Introduction
02:21 Challenges Faced by Open Source Maintainers
06:53 How Dosu Works
11:39 Partnership with the CNCF
16:39 Future of Open Source and AI

 

Guest:

Devin Stein is the CEO and Founder of Dosu. Prior to Dosu, Devin was an early engineer and leader at various startups. Outside of work, he is an active open source contributor and maintainer.

That Open Source Maintainer Life

Sarah Christoff discusses her experiences and challenges as an open source maintainer with a focus on her work with the Porter and Zarf projects. Sarah shares insights into the frustrations and isolation often felt by maintainers, and emphasizes the importance of community and human connections in navigating these roles. We chatted about of Porter and its function in simplifying complex DevOps tool integrations. Additionally, Sarah talks about Zarf, a project recently donated to the OpenSSF aimed at facilitating air-gapped Kubernetes deployments. 

00:00 Introduction

01:29 Challenges of Being an Open Source Maintainer

03:12 The Human Element in Software Development

05:45 Advice for Aspiring Maintainers

08:42 The Porter Project

11:10 The Zarf Project

13:09 The Importance of Community in Open Source

15:31 Women in Tech and Role Models

21:45 Animal Rescue and Community Building

26:10 Final Thoughts and Hot Takes on Open Source

 

Guest:

Sarah Christoff is a software engineer at Defense Unicorns who loves making complex code more digestible. She is the self-proclaimed founder of the Leslie Lamport fan club. When she's not bugbusting, she is running her animal rescue and competing in triathlons. She believes code should be like cats: intelligent, fluffy, and easy to take care of.