Twenty-five companies became more than two hundred in a week, all urging Washington not to restrict open-weight AI. The debate is real and, for a security leader, beside the point.

Whatever Washington decides, open-weight models are already being downloaded, fine-tuned, and run inside your environment today. This piece breaks down why the policy question is the wrong one to organize around, what self-hosting actually changes about your risk, and the six-step governance playbook that holds regardless of the ruling.