Open, to What End? A Capability-Theoretic Perspective on Open Search

TL;DR

This paper examines the concept of open search through a capability-theoretic lens, emphasizing the importance of the capabilities it provides to users and actors, and discusses challenges posed by corporate control and geopolitical tensions.

Contribution

It introduces a capability-theoretic perspective on open search, shifting focus from what is made open to the capabilities it enables for users and actors.

Findings

Open search faces similar conflicts as other openness movements.

The capability perspective highlights the importance of what users can do with open systems.

Corporate control can neutralize or co-opt openness efforts.

Abstract

The hegemony of control over our search platforms by a few large corporations raises justifiable concerns, particularly in light of emerging geopolitical tensions and growing instances of ideological imposition by authoritarian actors to manipulate public opinion. Recent movement for promote open search has emerged in response. This follows from past and ongoing push for openness to challenge corporate oligopolies (e.g., open source and open AI models) which have seen significant ongoing negotiations and renegotiations to establish standards around what constitutes being open. These tensions have hindered these movements from effectively challenging power, in turn allowing powerful corporations to neutralize or co-opt these movements to further entrench their dominance. We argue that the push for open search will inevitably encounter similar conflicts, and should foreground these tensions to safefguard against similar challenges as these adjacent movements. In particular, we argue that the concept of open should be understood not with respect to what is being made open but through a capability-theoretic lens, in terms of the capabilities it affords to the actors the system is being opened to.