"Preventing an AGI monopoly"… Decentralized AI nonprofit Sentient Foundation launches

Sentient, a decentralized AI (DeAI) infrastructure project, said on the 20th that it will launch the nonprofit “Sentient Foundation.”

The foundation’s goal is to build a governance framework to counter the dominance of “closed AI” led by Big Tech companies such as Google and OpenAI. Sentient said, “We established the foundation to ensure AGI is open-sourced and to prevent harms stemming from technology monopolies,” adding, “If DeepSeek has proven the potential of open-source AI models, the foundation will take on the role of building the infrastructure and governance to support them.”

The launch was timed to coincide with the release of DeepSeek V4. The industry is watching whether DeepSeek V4 can once again push past the threshold for performance and cost efficiency of existing AI. Against this backdrop, the foundation aims to set guidelines so AI technology is not confined as the preserve of a specific group, support researchers worldwide, and grow into an “AI version of the United Nations (UN).”

The foundation also drew a clear line between its role and that of Sentient Labs, the technology development organization. Sentient Labs is a research institute that develops Sentient’s proprietary reasoning technologies, including the “ROMA” framework. The foundation will monitor to ensure the technology does not become a tool for advancing the interests of specific companies and will uphold its public-interest character.

Sachi Kamiya, head of the Sentient Foundation, said, “Just as Linux became the open backbone of the internet, the time has come for open-source AGI to become core infrastructure for human progress,” adding, “The foundation will work to coordinate a transparent and fair governance structure so AGI does not fall under the control of any single organization.”

The foundation is also eyeing the Korean market. A foundation official said, “(With the foundation’s launch) a direct channel has opened for Korea’s outstanding open-source talent to contribute to and take the lead in establishing global AGI standards.”

Meanwhile, the foundation plans to host global forums such as the “Open AGI Summit” going forward to broaden societal debate on open-source AI.