Open @ UNGA 81: Open Hardware

Open hardware can help make AI systems more inspectable, adaptable, repairable, and interoperable. This lightning talk situates open hardware as one layer of a broader sovereignty strategy: a tool for expanding technical choice and auditability, not a promise that every country or community can manufacture or operate an entire computing stack on its own. It clarifies what open hardware can realistically deliver, including greater technical choice, auditability, and resistance to vendor lock-in, and where its limits lie against the reality of concentrated chip and cloud supply chains.

Michael Weinberg, Executive Director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy at the NYU School of Law