AI Decoded: Open Weights ≠ Open Source: Understanding AI Model Accessibility

The Ultimate Developer’s Fundamentals Article to AI Model Rights, Weights, and Deployment in 2024

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

TL;DR:

While open weights allow access to a model’s trained parameters, this doesn’t make the model open-source. Open weights enable model deployment and fine-tuning but come with specific licensing restrictions and limitations on commercial use. Understanding this distinction is crucial for developers and organizations implementing AI solutions.

The Common Misconception

There’s a growing trend in the AI community where companies release their model weights publicly.

This has led to a common misconception: if you can download and use a model’s weights, it must be open source.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

What Are Model Weights?

Think of an AI model as a sophisticated musical instrument:

— The architecture is the instrument’s design

— The weights are the precise tuning of each component