The models, dubbed “gpt-oss”, are OpenAI’s first properly open release since ChatGPT. Developers can tinker with them for free, adjusting how much brainpower the models use when reasoning through complex tasks.
They are not open source in the purist sense since there is no training data or full code, but they still match up against top-tier open models including DeepSeek’s R1. DeepSeek’s R1 landed in January and sent shockwaves through the AI scene with performance levels that rivalled OpenAI leaving the US firm looking behind the curve.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman admitted as much days later, saying the company had “been on the wrong side of history here and needed to figure out a different open-source strategy”.
The larger gpt-oss model performs on par with OpenAI’s own o4-mini, while the smaller version stacks up to o3-mini. The latter uses less memory, making it suitable for phones and laptops.
Altman claimed the release supported the company’s altruistic goals: “OpenAI’s mission is to ensure artificial general intelligence that benefits all of humanity. To that end, we are excited for the world to be building on an open AI stack created in the United States, based on democratic values, available for free to all and for wide benefit.”
The release was delayed twice, originally meant to arrive in June. OpenAI blamed “additional safety tests” for the holdup. It even built malicious versions to mimic misuse scenarios, like designing bioweapons or new viruses. These copies were tested and found incapable of causing serious harm, according to the firm. Three independent expert groups reviewed the process and suggested improvements.
China’s DeepSeek, along with Alibaba’s Qwen and Moonshot’s Kimi, has pushed the country to the front of the open AI race, drawing in eager developers. Meanwhile in the US, Meta’s push into open-weight models has fizzled with its latest effort falling short.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg warned that superintelligent systems would “raise novel safety concerns” and urging care around what to open source.
