Episode 94: Josh Montgomery and the Patent Trolls

Guest Josh Montgomery Panelists Eric Berry | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes *TRIGGER WARNING: *There is mention of blood in this episode. Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source for the long haul. Today, we have an amazing guest, Josh Montgomery, who is one of the co-founders of Mycroft AI, which is a private open source voice assistant and smart speaker, that customers could access, change, hack, and customize. Josh has also written a children’s book called, Mycroft and the Patent Trolls, that relates to open source sustainability. Josh takes us through the process of how Mycroft AI came about, we learn how it’s different than the other voice systems out there, and more about their goal, which is to provide value to customers in a way that makes them willing and eager to pay for it. He goes more in depth about the book he wrote which started because they realized there wasn’t a lot of innovation on the defense side, and Josh explains the ways the patent system needs to be reformed. Download this episode to find out much more! [00:01:42] We learn more about Josh and the story behind founding Mycroft AI. [00:04:20] Richard wonders how Josh builds this without having huge amounts of data to access. [00:06:04] When Josh talks about “us” he explains who “us” is, how large the community is, and what kind of people are in it. [00:08:21] Josh tells us about the challenges he faces trying to maintain that ethical boundary, but still be competitive. [00:12:37] Alyssa wonders if the business development model that Josh was talking about has been in any other space. [00:13:40] We hear a pitch for Mycroft AI from Josh. [00:15:20] Josh mentions giving back to the community and Richard wonders how that would work and who in particular would get the investment back. [00:18:18] Josh goes more in depth about how far they support people and what their focus is right now with Mycroft. [00:20:21] Richard brings up “Patent Trolls” and ask Josh to talk about the el