Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries

Law Innovation and Technology 16(2), 2024

Gorwa, Robert, and Michael Veale. 'Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries.' SocArXiv, 17 Nov. 2023. Web.

Faculty of Laws University College London Law Research Paper No. 05/2024

51 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2024

See all articles by Robert Gorwa

Robert Gorwa

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Michael Veale

University College London, Faculty of Laws

Date Written: September 11, 2024

Abstract

The AI development community is increasingly making use of hosting intermediaries such as Hugging Face provide easy access to user-uploaded models and training data. These model marketplaces lower technical deployment barriers for hundreds of thousands of users, yet can be used in numerous potentially harmful and illegal ways. In this article, we argue explain the ways in which AI systems, which can both ‘contain’ content and be open-ended tools, present one of the trickiest platform governance challenges seen to date. We provide case studies of several incidents across three illustrative platforms — Hugging Face, Git Hub and Civitai — to examine how model marketplaces moderate models. Building on this analysis, we outline important (and yet nevertheless limited) practices that industry has been developing to respond to moderation demands: licensing, access and use restrictions, automated content moderation, and open policy development. While the policy challenge at hand is a considerable one, we conclude with some ideas as to how platforms could better mobilize resources to act as a careful, fair, and proportionate regulatory access point.

Keywords: AI, Civitai, content moderation, hugging face, open source, platform governance, platforms, trust and safety

Suggested Citation

Gorwa, Robert and Veale, Michael, Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries (September 11, 2024). Law Innovation and Technology 16(2), 2024, Gorwa, Robert, and Michael Veale. 'Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries.' SocArXiv, 17 Nov. 2023. Web., Faculty of Laws University College London Law Research Paper No. 05/2024, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4716865 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4716865

Robert Gorwa

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Reichpietschufer 50
D-10785 Berlin, 10785
Germany

Michael Veale (Contact Author)

University College London, Faculty of Laws ( email )

Bentham House
4-8 Endsleigh Gardens
London, WC1E OEG
United Kingdom

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