Sam Altman moves beyond Ghibli craze to announce OpenAI's new open-weight model: Here's what it means

While the internet is still caught up in the viral ChatGPT Ghibli trend, debating whether it's a creative breakthrough or an artistic rip-off, ChatGPT maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has already moved on. His next major project, set to launch in just six months, has left people both intrigued and confused.

Yesterday, Sam Altman announced that OpenAI is set to release an open-weight AI model in the coming months.

"We are excited to release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months," the CEO wrote on X, calling it the "first open-weight language model since GPT-2."

TL;DR: we are excited to release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months, and we want to talk to devs about how to make it maximally useful: https://t.co/XKB4XxjREV

we are excited to make this a very, very good model!

__

we are planning to¡­

¡ª Sam Altman (@sama) March 31, 2025

But this has left many wondering, what exactly is an open-weight language model?

What is an open-weight language model, and how does it differ from ChatGPT?

An open-weight language model is a type of AI model where its trained parameters, or "weights," are made publicly available.

This means developers and researchers can use, modify, and fine-tune the model without having to train one from scratch.

However, unlike fully open-source models that also share the underlying code, open-weight models typically provide only the pre-trained weights, striking a balance between openness and control.

In contrast, ChatGPT (including versions like GPT-4) is a closed model - its weights are proprietary, and users can only access it through OpenAI's API or platform without making internal modifications.

Another key difference is that open-weight models can be deployed on private servers, local machines, or customised environments without relying on OpenAI's infrastructure. Meanwhile, ChatGPT runs only on OpenAI¡¯s cloud-based services, requiring internet access and API usage.

This shift toward open-weight models is partly seen as a response to the success of DeepSeek's R1 model from China.

Deepseek has proved to be a game-changer in the AI space | CREDIT: UNSPLASH

In January 2025, DeepSeek launched its R1 model, an open-weight AI system that performed on par with OpenAI's models but was created at a much lower cost. This increased competition in the AI industry which finally pushed OpenAI to rethink its strategy.

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