The AI company is looking to get back in the business of transparency.
For the first time in five years, OpenAI has released two new free and open-source AI models that are lightweight and designed to be easily integrated into other software programs.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the company characterized gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b as flexible but powerful AI algorithms that can perform a variety of tasks and be used in numerous settings. The company also included a feedback portal and a more extensive blog that further explains the models and how they work. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, said via X on Tuesday that he hoped that the AI would assist with “new kinds of research and the creation of new kinds of products.” Altman also seemed to champion the open source method: “We believe in individual empowerment,” he said. “Although we believe most people will want to use a convenient service like ChatGPT, people should be able to directly control and modify their own AI when they need to, and the privacy benefits are obvious.”
Unlike most of ChatGPT’s products, open-source models disclose the training parameters that were used to build their system. This level of transparency affords onlookers the benefit of knowing how the system functions and why it might behave in the ways that it does. The last time OpenAI released an open-source model was during Trump’s first presidency (truly, that feels like decades ago), with the release of GPT-2.
