Just How Open Is "Open-Source" AI?

A nuanced look at the open-source vs. closed-source claims.

The release of DeepSeek-R1 put the closed-source vs. open-source discussion back on our radars.

DeepSeek got praise for open-sourcing its model while OpenAI protects its trade secrets like your grandma protects her blueberry pie recipe.

Oh, the delicious irony of forcing OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 to make this image.

I, too, jumped on the bandwagon and called DeepSeek-R1 a “fully open-sourced reasoning model.”

But then I started coming across people arguing over whether DeepSeek’s models are truly open-source, open-weight, or something else.