Open-weight and open-source models

With “open-weight” models the weights are public, but often not the training data and training code. “Open source” in the strict sense means these are open too and the licence permits free use. Licence terms vary widely and should be checked before use.

Open models can be run and customised on your own servers or devices. This can favour data protection, cost control and independence from individual vendors – but requires in-house technical expertise.