If You Don’t Own the Code, the Code Owns You
If your agency doesn’t control its AI—then AI controls your agency
Proprietary AI tools are hidden. You can’t inspect the code, and you can’t see how decisions are made. They supposedly offer “plug-and-play solutions”. But without being able to verify for yourself, how can you really know? What happens when critical decisions are made by systems you can’t audit, can’t modify, and can’t afford to change?
That is one of many dangers of black-box AI. And that’s why: if you don’t own the code, the code owns you.
Joe Merrill—CEO of OpenTeams and one of the most trusted voices in open source infrastructure—just laid it out in plain terms:
“The future of AI should be open. Let’s make it happen.”
In his latest essay, Joe breaks down:
- Why the White House’s new AI executive order is a wake-up call
- How failed government AI projects could’ve been avoided
- Why open source is the only path to secure, sovereign, and scalable AI in public infrastructure
- What leaders should demand right now to prevent AI from becoming a liability
You don’t have to be a machine learning expert to understand what’s at stake. You just have to ask one question:
Do you trust a third-party vendor to control the decisions that run your agency?
If the answer is “no,” read Joe’s article.
Then forward it to the person in your organization who still thinks vendor-controlled AI is “easier.”
And then let’s talk.
We’ve helped government, finance, and aerospace teams rebuild their AI stack with full control. No black boxes. No guesswork. Just results.