For the first time in five years, OpenAI has released two new free and open-source AI models that are lightweight and designed to be easily integrated into other software programs.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the company characterized gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b as flexible but powerful AI algorithms that can perform a variety of tasks and be used in numerous settings. The company also included a feedback portal and a more extensive blog that further explains the models and how they work. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, said via X on Tuesday that he hoped that the AI would assist with “new kinds of research and the creation of new kinds of products.” Altman also seemed to champion the open source method: “We believe in individual empowerment,” he said. “Although we believe most people will want to use a convenient service like ChatGPT, people should be able to directly control and modify their own AI when they need to, and the privacy benefits are obvious.”
Unlike most of ChatGPT’s products, open-source models disclose the training parameters that were used to build their system. This level of transparency affords onlookers the benefit of knowing how the system functions and why it might behave in the ways that it does. The last time OpenAI released an open-source model was during Trump’s first presidency (truly, that feels like decades ago), with the release of GPT-2. That was when OpenAI was still a little-known startup, and it would be several years before the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Back in those days, the company was still routinely being referred to by monikers like “Elon Musk’s AI project,” despite the fact that Musk had parted ways with the company.
Perhaps most importantly, you won’t have to pay a dime to use these models. And as long as your computer’s specs are up to snuff, you can run them locally instead of relying on OpenAI’s servers. Any preppers out there looking for an AI doomsday machine might want to look into it.
From the looks of things, there’s a lot of promising stuff in the company’s new releases. gpt-oss is built to integrate into agentic workflows, OpenAI says, which means that new types of automated work—conducted by so-called “agents”—can be powered by the new algorithms. The new models also fall under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows users to create new software with the algorithms without worrying about getting sued. “Build freely without worrying about copyleft restrictions or patent risk—whether you’re experimenting, customizing, or deploying commercially,” OpenAI writes. The open-source ecosystem largely subsists on a plethora of such licensing agreements, allowing companies to build off free models.
OpenAI also paid some lip service to AI safety in its announcement. The company claims that, in addition to “running the models through comprehensive safety training and evaluations,” it also “introduced an additional layer of evaluation by testing an adversarially fine-tuned version of gpt-oss-120b” using its Preparedness Framework, which is designed to assess and track risky behavior in large language models.
In recent years, much criticism has been aimed at OpenAI over its decision to continue the “walled garden” approach to software development. The company’s LLM releases have stayed proprietary and, thus, shut off from public inspection. Now, OpenAI is obviously trying to prove the haters wrong and double down on its commitment to being a truly “open” organization. It’s anybody’s guess as to whether the company will be able to maintain such a commitment to the FOSS ethos, given that it also happens to be an organization worth hundreds of billions of dollars on paper. The organized money behind OpenAI may continue to see a benefit in owning systems that are exclusive, closed, and, most importantly, only controlled by a select group of insiders.
It’s noteworthy that GPT-5, the company’s most powerful and highly anticipated new model, will almost certainly be released in the same fashion as other recent GPT releases: closed.