Nairr, Red Hat, And Open Source Help Provide The Control Plane For AI Research
Red Hat, March 24,2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) projects in the open source community are growing at a pace that is both exhilarating and challenging. Stanford University's 2025 AI Index Report, presented information on a staggering 4.3 million open source AI projects created on GitHub during the previous year-a 40% jump in just 12 months.
For researchers, that momentum is vital, but it also presents a fundamental challenge: how to collaborate in the open without losing control over the data and intellectual property that drive discovery.
In a research context, it's not just about who owns the hardware; it's about having administrative control over your environment. Researchers and scientists live and die by our data, and we need to know that in a shared space, our unique inputs are protected. This ability to independently control and protect a project's digital footprint is what allows for a truly collaborative research environment. Thankfully, a solution has emerged in the research community - a way to bridge the gap through project-level control and a smarter way to manage data gravity.