Free AI models?
Mark hears there are open-source AI models you can download for free, and wants to know if that's true.
CLOSED MODELS
Only through a window
Bit explains: many models are closed. You only use them through an app or an API, and you can't see inside.
OPEN-WEIGHT
Download the whole brain
Open models let you download the full set of weights, the trained brain. For example Llama, Qwen, Mistral and DeepSeek.
THE RIGHT WORD
Open-source or open-weight?
To be precise, most are open-weight: you get the brain, but not the data or how it was trained. Fully open-source models share those too.
PROS AND CONS
Run it on your own computer
The upside: run it on your own computer, and your data never leaves it. The trade-off: you need a powerful computer with a good GPU, and it's usually not as good as the biggest models.
REMEMBER
When you see this word
When you see this word, think: a model you can download. Read the license carefully before using it for business.
This article is based on the video What do open-source and open-weight mean? from the Mark học AI channel. Watch the video (in Vietnamese) to see the animations.