OpenAI releases free, downloadable models in competition catch-up
"Going back to when we started in 2015, OpenAI's mission is to ensure AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that benefits all of humanity," said OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.
An open-weight model, in the context of generative AI, is one in which the trained parameters are made public, enabling users to fine-tune it.
Meta touts its open-source approach to AI, and Chinese AI startup DeepSeek rattled the industry with its low-cost, high-performance model boasting an open weight approach that allows users to customize the technology.
"This is the first time that we're releasing an open-weight model in language in a long time, and it's really incredible," OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman said during a briefing with journalists.
The new, text-only models deliver strong performance at low cost, according to OpenAI, which said they are suited for AI jobs like searching the internet or executing computer code, and are designed to be easy to run on local computer systems.
"We are quite hopeful that this release will enable new kinds of research and the creation of new kinds of products," Altman said.
OpenAI said it is working with partners including French telecommunications giant Orange and cloud-based data platform Snowflake on real-world uses of the models.
The open-weight models have been tuned to thwart being used for malicious purposes, according to OpenAI.
Altman early this year said his company had been "on the wrong side of history" when it came to being open about how its technology works.
He later announced that OpenAI will continue to be run as a nonprofit, abandoning a contested plan to convert into a for-profit organization.
The structural issue had become a point of contention, with major investors pushing for better returns.
That plan faced strong criticism from AI safety activists and co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company he left in 2018, claiming the proposal violated its founding philosophy.
In the revised plan, OpenAI's money-making arm will be open to generate profits but will remain under the nonprofit board's supervision.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Trump targets tariff evasion, with eye on China
Goods deemed to be "transshipped," or sent through a third country with lower export levies, will face an additional 40-percent duty under an incoming wave of Trump tariffs Thursday. The latest tranche of "reciprocal" tariff hikes, taking aim at what Washington deems unfair trade practices, impacts dozens of economies from Taiwan to India. The transshipment rule does not name countries, but is expected to impact China significantly given its position as a manufacturing powerhouse. Washington likely wants to develop supply chains that are less reliant on China, analysts say, as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies and the US sounds the alarm on Beijing's excess industrial capacity. But "it's a little more about the short-term effect of strengthening the tariff regime than it is about a decoupling strategy," said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. "The point is to make countries worried about it and then have them err on the side of not doing it, because they know that Trump could then jack up the tariff rates higher again," he added, referring to tariff evasion. The possibility of a sharply higher duty is a "perpetual stick in the negotiations" with countries, said Richard Stern, a tax and budget expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He told AFP that expanding penalties across the globe takes the focus away from Beijing alone. Alternative supplies Experts have noted that Vietnam was the biggest winner from supply chain diversions from China since the first Trump tariffs around 2018, when Washington and Beijing engaged in a trade war. And Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks pointed to signs this year of significant transshipments of Chinese goods. He noted in a June report that Chinese exports to certain Southeast Asian countries started surging "anomalously" in early 2025 as Trump threatened widespread levies. While it is unclear if all these products end up in the United States, Brooks cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in countries like Thailand and Vietnam rocketed right when Trump imposed duties. "One purpose of the transshipment provisions is to force the development of supply chains that exclude Chinese inputs," said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The other purpose is to push back on Chinese overcapacity and force them to eat their own surpluses," he added. But Washington's success in the latter goal depends on its ability to get other countries on board. "The transshipment penalties are designed to encourage that," Reinsch said. Lipsky added: "The strategy that worked in the first Trump term, to try to offshore some Chinese manufacturing to other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, is going to be a much more difficult strategy to execute now." China response? Lipsky noted that Beijing could see the transshipment clause as one targeting China on trade, "because it is." "The question is, how China takes that in the broader context of what had been a thawing relationship between the US and China over the past two months," he added. While both countries temporarily lowered triple-digit tariffs on each other's exports, that truce expires August 12. The countries are in talks to potentially extend the de-escalation, although the final decision lies with Trump. It will be tough to draw a line defining product origins, analysts say. Customs fraud has been illegal for some time, but it remains unclear how Washington will view materials from China or elsewhere that have been significantly transformed. The burden lies with customs authorities to identify transshipment and assess the increased duties.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
NFL buys 10% stake in ESPN, which buys NFL Network, RedZone
Both companies announced the deal, which also includes the combining of NFL Fantasy Football with ESPN Fantasy Football. Federal regulators must approve the transaction, a process that could take several months, according to the league. Until the deal closes, fans are unlikely to see any significant changes to ESPN or NFL Network. NFL team owners also must approve the deal, but that is seen as little more than a formality given the expanded reach on offer for NFL programming. "I think we've hooked up with the best partners we can have," said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, chairman of the NFL's media committee. "That will help expose us to more homes, more of an international audience. Strategically, we have to grow our salary cap and can only do that by -- if we want to keep labor peace, we have to grow our audience. This transaction helps us to do that." Global growth opportunities for the NFL, which already plays games overseas every season, played a key role in motivating the NFL to get terms of the deal sorted. "We're hooking up with the strongest sports amalgamation of sports product," Kraft said. "We're giving them what I believe is the best content, and they're giving us the greatest operational company to grow our audience globally. "This is a way for us to broaden our audience. We've done so much. I don't think there's any company like (ESPN owners) Disney and ESPN in doing sports, all sports. We need to expose our product to more people and a greater variety of people." © 2025 AFP
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
Chinese service companies are targeting Brazil
Chinese giants in the services sector are betting big on Brazil. After the arrival of the online retail platform Temu in June 2024, the country is preparing to welcome two more major multinationals. On May 11, during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's visit to China, the food delivery company Meituan announced an investment of 5.6 billion reais (€879.7 million) in Brazil to launch its operations by the end of 2025. The following day, on May 12, ice cream and tea chain Mixue also unveiled a 3.2 billion reais investment plan to open its first stores in Brazil in the coming months. These announcements have marked a turning point in China-Brazil economic relations. In 2023, nearly 72% of Chinese investment in Brazil – totaling $1.63 billion – was concentrated in the energy and automotive sectors. The arrival of these new players represents, therefore, "a migration of Chinese investment toward services," said Livio Ribeiro, an economist specializing in China at the Foundation Getulio Vargas. According to Ribeiro, this diversification is partly explained by the current Chinese economic context. With a slowdown in activity, notably caused by the prolonged real estate sector crisis, the country has faced "a lot of uncertainty about the pace of consumption growth," he said.
