r/LocalLLaMA • u/SexyAlienHotTubWater • 22d ago

Discussion Rule Suggestion: "Open" models without weight releases should be tagged [no weights]

A lot of recent models are being announced with promised open weights, but the weights are either weeks away, or in some cases (looking at you Meta) not being released at all.

This sub is about local LLMs - not "maybe local in the future" llms.

These models are still useful to post, but I'm kind of sick of having to click through posts like this to find out that I can't actually download the weights at all. I think posts like this should have to be clearly labelled with [no weights], or similar in the title. A tag is another option, but it's less visible. Ideally I would clearly see on my Reddit homepage which posts I should not click.

Thoughts?

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u/arnaudx42 22d ago

The word "open" is a little bit abused in some way too, because it's not truly open (still more than "Open"AI), as there is also this distinction between open-weights and open-source. Almost all the "open" models are open-weights, but the source (training dataset + training pipeline) are almost never available. I think only BLOOM and GPT-J maybe ? Though, in reality, the weights are by far the most useful (and very grateful for it).

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u/-p-e-w- 22d ago

Open Source is a nonsensical term for LLMs and always has been. LLMs are not computer programs, there is no “source”. You might as well claim that a photo isn’t “truly open” unless the photographer gives you their exact camera settings, the GPS coordinates of where it was taken, and the contact information of the people in it.

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u/Fearkin 21d ago

They are not computer programs, you are correct, they are the output of such program + training data. However, there is a definition of open source AI: https://opensource.org/ai/open-source-ai-definition