Meta’s latest open-weight AI release, accompanied by a Mark Zuckerberg essay, spotlights a central question in the industry: who controls the intelligence consumers rely on? Mozilla CTO Raffi Krikorian argues the real battle isn’t just between Washington and Beijing or among tech titans, but over whether users can be locked out, carry their data elsewhere, and keep systems running if vendors or regulators pull the plug. Citing Amazon’s 2009 Kindle deletion and a recent U.S. order that forced an AI model offline, he contends capability is no longer the deciding factor—control is. Krikorian proposes three demands: governments and critical institutions should hold legally usable copies of capable open-weight models; AI “agent” memories must be portable; and the open ecosystem needs shared infrastructure and standards that no single company can shut down. The goal: a durable, testable, and sovereign AI foundation that lets users walk away if needed.
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The Mozilla Manifesto
