Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has officially confirmed that the company is delaying the release of its new open model, which was already postponed earlier this summer. According to Sam Altman, the delay will allow the developers to perform further safety testing.
The delay period of this new open model is indefinite since the company is seriously citing safety evaluations and high-risk concerns. Sam Altman announced the news through his official X account. As per the latest information, the soon-to-be-released model from OpenAI offers unrestricted access to core parameters.
Why OpenAI Delayed its First Open-Weight Model?
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, has announced through his X account that the company’s first-ever open-weight model will be delayed and likely to launch later than initially planned. The model has already been pushed back a month earlier this summer, and this further delay has raised serious concerns among the OpenAI followers. Altman claimed that the company is pushing the launch indefinitely for further safety tests.
Sam Altman stated that they had planned to launch their open-weight model the following week, but they were delaying it because they needed time to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas. He added that they were not yet sure how long it would take them.
The indefinite delay indicates that the developers and OpenAI followers might need to wait a little longer to try and experience the first open-weight model. Developers will be able to download and operate the open model once it is released, but they have to wait for an indefinite period since the next possible release date is not updated by the company. The open model launch was one of the most anticipated OpenAI events in the summer, along with the introduction of GPT-5. Altman expressed his gratitude to the community for the compromise and the adjustment.
He also added that their research team had done something unexpected and quite amazing, and they believed it would be worth the wait, although it needed a bit longer. He expressed confidence that the community would build great things with the model, but once the weights were released, they could not be pulled back. He mentioned that this was new for them and that they wanted to get it right. He apologised for being the bearer of bad news and emphasised that they were working very hard.
This is not the first delay from OpenAI; the model was initially planned to launch last month. At the Time, Altman came up with an explanation that the OpenAI research team had developed something unexpected and quite amazing, and had been working on it.
“We are going to take a little more time with our open-weights model, i.e., expect it later this summer, but not June. Our research team did something unexpected and quite amazing, and we think it will be very, very worth the wait, but needs a bit longer.“
–Sam Altman commented back on June 11
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What is the Open-Weight Model?
An open-weight AI model is a machine learning system that is publicly available. By using an open-weight AI model, researchers and developers can download it for free, modify it, and deploy various models.
Unlike OpenAI’s GPT-4 and the upcoming GPT-5, the upcoming open model will be fully downloadable and accessible without any restrictions. This kind of openness would make a significant benchmark in and take the company to a whole different level. The unlimited freedom for developers comes with a catch; giving unlimited and unrestricted access to the model’s underlying weights will lead to a risk of OpenAI’s control over the model’s use. Some internal sources opine that this could be the reason for the indefinite delay implemented by the company and Sam Altman.
But, Aidan Clark, OpenAI’s VP of Research and head of the open model project, has another opinion on the delay. He stated that, capability-wise, they believed the model was phenomenal. However, he mentioned that their standards for an open-source model were high and added that they thought they needed more time to ensure they were releasing a model they could be proud of along every axis.
The potential launch date is not disclosed by the company, so we might need to wait a little longer to experience it. Developers should wait for the next update to know the latest information related to the model. Even though the model is released in near soon, it’s unclear whether all the features will make it to the final version.
