In this episode I dig into open weight and open source AI models: what they actually are, why they keep showing up in AI news, and why I think they’re central to future-proofing our AI usage. I cover a bit of the technical aspect, the economic factors at play, and make the case that open weight models are a true hedge against getting stuck forever paying whatever a handful of AI companies decide to charge while simultaneously worrying that access could just be stripped away at any moment.

• What open weight and open source models actually are
• Why open models matter: market pricing and individual sovereignty
• Open weight vs. open source definitions
• Why it's called "open weight" (parameters refresher)
• Who's releasing open weight models
• Why companies release open weight models
• Why individuals would choose an open model
• How to try an open weight model yourself
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's open letter and Anthropic's response
• How I used AI this week: Claude's Scheduled Tasks feature

• Listen to Ep. 17: Will ChatGPT Get Old Navy'd?
• Read this episode's Curious Companion
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• (00:00:05) - Promoting Curiosity: The AI Curious
• (00:00:38) - Requiring Curiosity
• (00:01:07) - Open Source vs Open Weight
• (00:01:56) - Open Weight Models: Do They Even Work?
• (00:08:05) - What is an Open Weight Model?
• (00:12:43) - What are the Open Weight Models
• (00:14:16) - Open Weight vs Frontier: The Differences
• (00:17:14) - Open vs Closed PPT: The Pricing
• (00:18:59) - On OpenAI and its "free" models
• (00:21:11) - Choosing the right cloud provider
• (00:22:09) - Local vs. Hosting: More Tech, More Privacy
• (00:23:13) - Open Weight Models: How to Try them
• (00:26:02) - Nvidia's CEO on OpenAI and the Future of AI
• (00:28:51) - How I Used AI This Week
• (00:31:25) - Coming Soon: The Curious Companion