Open-Source AGI Fantasy Is Ending. Meta Just Proved It.

For months, we warned that making advanced artificial intelligence open source was a dangerous idea.

Not because we oppose innovation.
Not because we fear technology.

But because some technologies, once released, cannot be recalled, regulated, or contained.

AGI, short for Artificial General Intelligence, is the point at which artificial intelligence becomes smarter than humans, able to reason, plan, persuade, and act across nearly every domain. Some researchers openly call this superintelligence.

In the wrong hands, such a system could cause global harm on a scale the world has never faced before.

So the idea of making that kind of intelligence open source, freely available to anyone — criminals, rogue nations, extremist groups, or drug cartels — was not bold. It was reckless.

Yet Mark Zuckerberg publicly promised that Meta’s superintelligence lab would release its most powerful AI systems openly once they reached that level.

At the time, warnings like ours were dismissed as alarmist. Open-source AI was framed as inevitable, virtuous, even morally superior. Anyone raising concerns was told they did not “trust the community” or did not understand progress.

Then, quietly, something changed.

Meta’s Quiet Reversal

In December 2025, reporting confirmed that Meta was backing away from its open-source posture for its next-generation AI systems, pivoting toward a closed, proprietary model strategy.

The same company that once lectured the world about the moral necessity of open-source AI suddenly began acting as if openness was a liability.

No press conference.
No apology.
Just behavior.

That matters more than words.

Why This Matters

We are not claiming Meta changed course because of us. That would be unserious.

What we are saying is this:

The industry is now behaving as if the dangers we warned about were real.

And behavior is often the most honest admission.

Companies do not reverse course lightly, especially when they have invested years of reputation and rhetoric into a position. When they do, it is usually because the risks are no longer theoretical.

What We Warned About Then

Long before this pivot, we argued that open-source AGI posed risks fundamentally different from open-source software:

• Irreversibility. Once released, frontier models cannot be pulled back.

• Scale. Harm scales instantly, globally, and asymmetrically.

• Misuse certainty. Abuse is not hypothetical; it is inevitable.

• No accountability. When damage occurs, no one is legally responsible.

We went further than most commentators. We mocked up what real governance might look like, including legal liability for open-source AGI misuse.

That framing was unpopular. It still is.

But it is increasingly hard to ignore.

What Changed

Nothing magical happened in December.

What changed was recognition.

Recognition that:

• AI is no longer just software.

• Intelligence itself is becoming infrastructure.

• And infrastructure decisions are governance decisions, whether anyone voted on them or not.

Open-source idealism collides with reality when the stakes become civilizational.

Why You Should Be Paying Attention

We do not wait for consensus before speaking. We do not wait for official permission to raise uncomfortable questions. And we do not measure truth by applause.

Our role is not to predict the future perfectly. It is to identify the direction of power before it becomes obvious and too late to stop.

Sometimes that means sounding the alarm early, when it is least welcome.

History tends to sort out the rest.

If you want analysis that waits until everyone agrees, there are plenty of places to find it.

If you want analysis that pays attention to what comes before the pivot, you’re in the right place.

Martin Mawyer is the President of Christian Action Network, host of the “Shout Out Patriots” podcast, and author of When Evil Stops Hiding.

Follow him on Substack for more action alerts, cultural commentary, and real-world campaigns defending faith, family, and freedom.