Thierry Rayna, Professor at the Polytechnic: "The industrial age's model of innovation is a heresy in history"

Thierry Rayna, professor at Polytechnique, stated, “The model of innovation from the industrial era is heresy in history.” He argued that the current digital age has fundamentally changed how innovation occurs, moving away from the centralized, closed systems of the past. Anthropic and OpenAI are both preparing for major milestones: Anthropic plans to list on the stock market in November, while OpenAI will do so the following year. During this period, Anthropic reported two profitable quarters, while OpenAI launched new personal agents called “dots” on September 29. To demonstrate their commitment, both companies have been vocal about cybersecurity risks associated with AI and signed the self-regulation charter proposed by Donald Trump. However, the real threat comes from China. While Western firms develop proprietary models, Chinese companies bet heavily on open innovation through their “open weights” models. According to Rayna, these models have fully understood the importance of openness in an environment saturated with content and choices. He explained, “In a world of abundance of content and choice, refusing to be copied is condemning oneself to invisibility and insignificance.” Rayna emphasized that historical innovation was always artisanal and open. From the wheel to bread, discoveries spread freely and were often improved upon by others, even if some countries sought to keep certain processes secret. It was during the industrial era that innovation became concentrated within large enterprises, requiring expensive machinery and extensive research teams. This model dominated from the 1960s until the 1990s, yet it does not represent the true nature of human innovation throughout history. He noted that open-source software initially faced resistance from proprietary software advocates. In reality, the proprietary model is the anomaly. Digital technologies have revived open innovation, transforming economic models. Despite lingering in the industrial era, the shift toward open systems is accelerating. The core feature of the industrial era was the centralization of production means within corporations. Digital tools, however, empower individuals to communicate, create, and innovate freely. This shift explains the rise of social media, Wikipedia, and open-source software. As tech companies once resistant to open innovation begin to embrace it, Rayna pointed out that even the largest firms struggle against communities of developers and users who better understand user needs.