# Intelligence is yours. Let's keep it that way.

DevFeed: [Intelligence is yours. Let's keep it that way.](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/intelligence-is-yours-let-s-keep-it-that-way-19892.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/intelligence-is-yours>)

Author: Paddy Srinivasan

Published: 2026-09-14T21:11:13Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [DigitalOcean](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/digitalocean.md>)

Topics: [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [PostgreSQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql.md>), [React](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/react.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [competition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/competition.md>), [github](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github.md>), [infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infrastructure.md>), [intellectual-property](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intellectual-property.md>), [kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kubernetes.md>), [models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/models.md>), [mysql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mysql.md>), [news](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/news.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [opencode](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opencode.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [react](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/react.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that founders should retain ownership and control of their companies' intelligence rather than depend on a single intelligence provider. It advocates an Open Intelligence movement built from open-source models, agents, harnesses, data technologies, and infrastructure, drawing comparisons with the adoption of Linux, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kubernetes, and other open technologies.

## Source excerpt

Intelligence was yours. A founder's intellectual property, business logic, differentiation, their intelligence, was once theirs alone. You built it, you owned it, and no tools/platform vendor stood between you and your customers. This is no longer clear. It is starting to look like it is "theirs." Intelligence can now be manufactured: the models, the agents and the harnesses that drive them, and the compute they run on. Providers who own all these can produce the application, and the differentiation, in every industry. That power runs the risk of becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of companies. The race for the application layer is not about interfaces or go-to-market; it is a fight over who owns the intelligence layer itself. We have seen this before but we must act before its too late. Linux started behind Unix and Windows and now runs most of the world's servers. PostgreSQL and MySQL started behind Oracle and now underpin most new software. Kubernetes arrived after proprietary orchestrators and made them irrelevant. Each began less capable and won anyway: builders could see inside it, run it anywhere, and never had to ask permission. The same is happening now. Open weight models have repeatedly reached the frontier this past year. Open harnesses like OpenCode have grown to tens of trillions of tokens a day. Hermes reached more than 200,000 GitHub stars in five months, a milestone that took React a decade to achieve. Along with the near total adoption of open source data technologies, this collection of open technologies power an Open Intelligence movement. Open Intelligence restores the order. It returns to founders ownership of what makes their companies theirs. Founders should be free to build without tying their future to a single intelligence provider: their choice of agents, harnesses, data technologies, models, and infrastructure, with open source transparency, control, and competition keeping every layer honest. The stakes go beyond business.