OPENAI, the company behind Chatgpt, announced on Monday that it developed a more open generative AI model, pointing out a major strategic change, AFP reported.
This decision comes as Openai faces the growing competition from Chinese rivals Deepseek and Meta, who both defended Open Source.
Until now, Openai has strongly defended its closed and owners models, arguing that the restriction of access to basic technology helps to prevent poor user uses. Google also supported this approach, warning that open AI models have security risks.
However, criticisms – including the former Openai investor, Elon Musk, accused the company of moving away from its original mission. Musk has repeatedly called for Openai to “return to the open source force and security focused for good.”
Competitive pressures and market requirements
The growing popularity of open AI models has exerted pressure on Openai to reconsider its approach. Many companies and governments have hesitated to rely on owners’ models that they cannot modify, especially when data security is a concern.
Open Source models, such as Meta’s Llama family and the R1 model at a lower cost of Deepseek, offer organizations greater control by allowing them to download and adapt the AI for their specific needs.
The meta-PDG Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Llama had exceeded a billion downloads, highlighting the demand for open models. Meanwhile, the DEEPSEEK R1 model, launched in January, has won significant land by offering a profitable alternative.
Recognizing this change on the market, the CEO of Openai, Sam Altman, recognized the company’s decision to change course. “We have been thinking about it for a long time, but other priorities have taken up priority. It is now important to do it,” posted Altman on X.
Commitment of developers and future plans
To facilitate the transition, Openai plans to engage with developers through a series of events. The company will begin to collect comments in San Francisco before extending discussions in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The announcement comes as Openai continues to experience rapid growth. Its latest image generation features in Chatgpt have attracted millions of new users, Altman saying that a million users have joined one hour depending on the launch of the functionality. He also noted that overwhelming demand was breastfeeding the GPU infrastructure of Openai.
In the midst of these changes, Openai would finalize a record financing cycle of $ 40 billion led by the Japanese group Softbank, marking one of the largest capital increases in the history of startups.
