Models
Open weights vs closed
Whether a model's inner settings are shared publicly or kept private.
The 'weights' are the trained internal numbers that make a model work. Open weights means a company publishes those numbers so anyone can download the model, run it themselves, and build on it. Closed means the model stays locked on the company's servers and you can only reach it through their service. Open offers freedom and control, while closed often offers convenience and tighter oversight.
For example
You can download an open weights model and run it on your own computer with no internet connection.
Related
Reasoning modelAn AI that pauses to think through a problem step by step before answering.Mixture of expertsA big model split into specialists, only a few of which handle each question.DistillationTraining a small, cheap model to imitate a big, expensive one.QuantizationRounding a model's numbers to make it smaller and faster.