Why open weights are not open source, in a new essay on AI’s category problem
aronchick · x · 2026-07-28
- The post points to a long essay arguing that people keep calling open weights and open models “open source,” even though the author says that is misleading.
- The article revisits why the term open source was coined in 1998: to focus on source access rather than price.
- It contrasts true source availability with “free binaries” style distribution, where users can run something but cannot inspect, rebuild, or carry it forward.
- The author argues that open-weight AI is not the same thing as open source and frames the debate as a category error around what users actually receive when they download a model.
Related event: Industry Debates: Open Weights Are Not True Open Source(4 posts)→
More from Companies & People
- Anthropic Insiders: Not Everyone at the Lab Believes in High p(doom) — anpaure · 2026-09-11
- Lumara AI Film Festival Comes to NYC Oct 26, Top AI Filmmakers to Compete — 0xAllen_ · 2026-09-11
- X drama: Anthropic researchers accused of spying on academic customers and racing them to results — basedjensen · 2026-09-11
- Investor argues Palantir-Nvidia partnership should slash Anthropic's IPO valuation — pdamodaran · 2026-09-11
- a16z podcast: why 2-3 person startups are absent from policy debates — a16z Podcast · 2026-09-11
- PyTorch Day Korea 2026 launches first offline conf, CFP closes Sept 13 — PyTorch · 2026-09-11