Now it’s mounting a powerful second act, joined by a wave of AI open-source enthusiasts. This time around the stakes are higher, and we need to give it the support it never had.
In 2024 the AI leader Hugging Face developed an open-source platform for AI robots, which already has 3,500+ robot data sets and draws thousands of participants from every continent to join giant hackathons. Raspberry Pi went public on the London Stock Exchange for $700 million. After a hiatus, Maker Faire came back; the most recent one had nearly 30,000 attendees, with kinetic sculptures, flaming octopuses, and DIY robot bands, and this year there will be over 100 Maker Faires around the world. Just last week, DIY.org relaunched its app. In March, my friend Roya Mahboob, founder of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, released a movie about the team to incredible reviews. People love the idea that making is the ultimate form of human empowerment and expression. All the while, a core set of people have continued influencing millions through maker organizations like FabLabs and Adafruit.
Studies show that hands-on creativity reduces anxiety, combats loneliness, and boosts cognitive function. The act of making grounds us, connects us to others, and reminds us that we are capable of shaping the world with our own hands.
I’m not proposing to reject AI hardware but to reject the idea that innovation must be proprietary, elite, and closed. I’m proposing to fund and build the open alternative. That means putting our investment, time, and purchases towards robot built in community labs, AI models trained in the open, tools made transparent and hackable. That world isn’t just more inclusive—it’s more innovative. It’s also more fun.
This is not nostalgia. This is about fighting for the kind of future we want: A future of openness and joy, not of conformity and consumption. One where technology invites participation, not passivity. Where children grow up not just knowing how to swipe, but how to build. Where creativity is a shared endeavor, not the mythical province of lone geniuses in glass towers.
In his Io announcement video, Altman said, “We are literally on the brink of a new generation of technology that can make us our better selves.” It reminded me of the movie Mountainhead, where four tech moguls tell themselves they are saving the world while the world is burning. I don’t think the iPhone made us our better selves. In fact, you’ve never seen me run faster than when I’m trying to snatch an iPhone out of my three-year-old’s hands.
So yes, I’m watching what Sam Altman and Jony Ive will unveil. But I’m far more excited by what’s happening in basements, in classrooms, on workbenches. Because the real iPhone moment isn’t a new product we wait for. It’s the moment you realize you can build it yourself. And best of all? You can’t doomscroll when you’re holding a soldering iron.
Ayah Bdeir is a leader in the maker movement, a champion of open source AI, and founder of littleBits, the hardware platform that teaches STEAM to kids through hands-on invention. A graduate of the MIT Media Lab, she was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women, and her inventions have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.
