I am U-Zyn Chua. I build, research and write about technology, AI and the open web.
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Q: Would you consider releasing some model weights, and publishing some research?

Sam Altman: yes, we are discussing. i personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy; not everyone at openai shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority.

Source: AMA with OpenAI's team

It is interesting that Sam Altman said what he said, considering the ongoing legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI on the similar topic. It is even more intriguing that DeepSeek appears to be a catalyst for this shift in thought.

Among some of my peers, there have been some general extrapolations concerning the DeepSeek shockwave, suggesting that China is demonstrating to the world, particularly the U.S., how an open-source strategy can be effective. However, this conjecture seems far-fetched, as open-weight AI models not only originated in the U.S. but thrived. The real catalyst for popularizing open-weight models was Meta's Llama, released in early 2023. Many of the open models available today are modeled or structured based on Meta's Llama.

Regardless, this is beyond country lines and should not be politicized.

Open models are compelling but challenging to monetize. For Meta, this is manageable because they have substantial financial resources and revenue streams independent of their AI initiatives. This has given Meta ample room for experimentation, including the not-so-successful metaverse venture that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

For OpenAI, however, AI is their sole focus, making it difficult to convince their board to adopt an open approach. This is even more challenging considering the switching cost of their clients is negligible.

We have witnessed how open-source technology has enabled companies and researchers across national borders to build upon previous knowledge more easily, leading to better results and products in a remarkably short time frame.

For the sake of humanity, I sincerely hope that this trend persists.

One concern I have, however, is the increasing weaponization of chips, which could pose a significant barrier to innovation.