ETRI expands open-source consortium to tackle AI copyright, security risks

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said Tuesday it is expanding its open-source consortium — originally formed among government-funded research institutes — into a broader, institute-wide body to systematically address complex open-source risks, including license disputes, security vulnerabilities and AI training data copyright issues.

The expansion is expected to go beyond simple technology sharing to strengthen the overall competitiveness of the national research and development ecosystem. It aims ultimately to secure sovereignty over strategic national technologies and build a sustainable research environment centered on mutual cooperation and ESG management.

Open source has emerged as a key driver across strategic national fields including AI, semiconductors, aerospace and defense, well beyond its origins in software development. Its role as an essential element of "national technology sovereignty" — shaping technological innovation and industrial competitiveness — has grown increasingly recognized, and reliance on it continues to deepen.

Open-source software allows anyone to freely use publicly available source code, but it carries risks: legal disputes can arise from failure to comply with license obligations, and security vulnerabilities may be exposed. More recently, copyright issues surrounding data used to train AI models have added to those concerns. Managing these risks independently is particularly difficult for individual research institutions given the sheer volume of open-source usage and the complexity of modern software supply chains.

ETRI led the founding of the government-funded research institute open-source consortium in 2022 as a cooperative framework among such institutes. Drawing on its own open-source governance system and R&D management expertise, ETRI has served as the central hub for public-sector open-source management, leading the development of guidelines and strengthening practical capabilities within the consortium.

Through these efforts, the consortium has generated strong synergies that have systematically raised the open-source-based R&D capabilities of participating institutes.

Building on those results, ETRI plans this year to fully expand the consortium into a system encompassing all government-funded research institutes. The institute aims to spread successful governance practices across all participating organizations and consolidate a nationwide open-source cooperation framework aligned with long-term national science and technology policy.

"Cooperation on open source among government-funded research institutes is a core strategy that goes beyond simple technology sharing to enhance the competitiveness of the national R&D ecosystem," said Lee Seung-hwan, head of ETRI's planning division. "We will work through the consortium to foster mutual cooperation, build a sustainable research environment and contribute to realizing ESG management."