When asked in an AMA if OpenAI would release model weights and research, Sam Altman said “we are discussing” and “it's also not our current highest priority”
CEO of the ChatGPT maker says his company has been ‘on the wrong side of history’ with open-source software
Wall Street JournalDeepa Seetharaman
Context & Ripple Effects
OpenAI had already described compute allocation as involving hard trade-offs, including in its earlier discussion of compute constraints. This AMA places model openness within those same prioritization choices rather than presenting it as an imminent product commitment.
The remarks also follow an acknowledgment that DeepSeek had narrowed OpenAI's lead, making the company’s reassessment of its open-source posture strategically consequential. A later commitment to an open-weight reasoning model shows that the discussion developed into a more concrete direction.
First-order effects
OpenAI leaves developers and researchers without a commitment or timetable for access to its weights or underlying research, while signaling that the issue remains under internal review.
The company publicly acknowledges a mismatch between its historical posture on open source and the direction it now believes may be needed, but keeps near-term priorities elsewhere.
Second-order effects
Open-weight rivals gain a clearer opening to court developers who need local deployment, modification, or deeper inspection than a hosted model interface permits.
OpenAI’s eventual choice on weights becomes a competitive positioning decision: continued restraint preserves a controlled-access approach, while any release would require a distinct reason for users to choose it over existing open alternatives.
Third-order effects
The episode points to a market increasingly split between controlled frontier services and portable model weights, with providers pressured to articulate which access model best serves developers.
If competitive pressure keeps pushing leading labs toward selective releases, openness is likely to be governed and differentiated rather than an all-or-nothing shift to fully open research.
The trend: Frontier AI labs are reassessing controlled access as open-weight competitors make developer portability and transparency a sharper basis of competition.
“For us little people, the choice seems to be between being data-jacked and screwed over by the undemocratic Chinese, or being data-jacked and screwed over by the post-democratic tech bros.” — Marina Hyde utterly nails it! — https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
i'm always yelling about AI leaders not telling the full truth especially to garner as much money as humanly possible so gotta give credit where its due
Let me tell you all a little story. Sometime around a or so year ago i reached out to an openai staffer who will not be named who had implied they would be very interested in doing some things open source...
🇺🇸 JASON: SAM ALTMAN GOT A TASTE OF HIS OWN MEDICINE “I think the best part of this is the fact that Sam Altman was supposed to be doing open source. He made it a closed source company. He stole everybody's data and got caught red handed. Now, the Chinese have come and open [vide…
This is big. “I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy.” - Altman during Reddit Q&A, on releasing model weights. Deepseek really blew everything wide open. [image]
In his Reddit AMA, Sam Altman (@sama) revealed OpenAI is discussing releasing model weights and admitted the company was “on the wrong side of history” on open source. He also acknowledged DeepSeek's rise, saying OpenAI will “maintain less of a lead.” [image]
“I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy,” Altman responded. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Sam Altman said during the reddit AMA that OpenAI are currently discussing releasing some model weights and publishing research. With regards to open source, he personally feels that they have been on the wrong side of history and need a new strategy. [image]