Open source AGI is not a good thing. In fact, it would be a disastrously bad thing. Giving people the source code doesn't just let them inspect it for errors, it also lets them launch it themselves. If you get an AGI close to ready for launch, then sharing its source code means that instead of having one party to decide whether there are enough safety measures ready to launch, you have many parties individually deciding whether to launch it themselves, possibly modifying its utility function to suit their own whim, and the hastiest party's AGI wins.
Ideally, you'd want to let people study the code, but only trustworthy people, and in a controlled environment where they can't take the source code with them. But even that is risky, since revealing that you have an AGI makes you a target for espionage and attack by parties who shouldn't be trusted with humanity's future.
Actually it reduces the chance of any party drawing massively ahead of the rest. It acts as an equalising force, by power-sharing. Since one of the main things we want to avoid is a disreputable organisation using machine intelligence to gain an advantage - and sustaining it over a long period of time. Using open-source software helps to defend against that possibility.
Machine intelligence will be a race - but it will be a race, whether participants share code or not.
Having said all that, machine intelligence protected by patents with secret source code on a server somewhere does seem like a reasonably probable outcome.
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.