Technologies

OpenAI Just Teased a New ‘Open-Weights’ AI Model: Here’s What That Means

You still won’t be able to see what ChatGPT is trained on, though.

OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, is building a new AI model. The model will be an «open-weights» language model with reasoning, according to CEO Sam Altman who tweeted about the development on Monday.

An «open-weights» AI model is a kind of middle ground between open- and closed-source approaches. Weights are how AI models learn and make connections — certain characteristics or connections are given more weight in an effort to reinforce specific information. An open-weights model means that its weights are publicly available, as the Federal Trade Commission puts it. That means that users would be able to see these weights and change them without retraining the model on new data.

Open-weights models are usually cheaper for companies to use and allows them to customize the models. For example, a business could upload its internal documents to an existing open-weights model to incorporate that information in its results without having to build the whole thing from scratch.

But open-weights models are not the same thing as open-source models. Like the name implies, an open-source model lets you see what it’s made of, the source code, sometimes in addition to how it’s trained and weighted. In an open-weights model, you can see how the model makes connections but not necessarily its underlying code or training content. It’s all about the degree of openness. Given OpenAI’s track record of not disclosing what it uses to train ChatGPT, the new open-weight model is likely to give folks a glimpse behind the curtain, but not much else.

AI companies are in a heated race as they each develop a variety of models for different uses. OpenAI’s new model is primed to be a competitor to Meta’s Llama models, which are open-source. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that open-source is the correct path forward for AI development. The new model also comes as Chinese AIs like DeepSeek fight for the top spot. DeepSeek’s newest V3 model is reportedly leading the pack, and it’s also an open-weights model. Open-weights and open-source models could threaten OpenAI’s subscription models by providing businesses with cheaper, more customized AI tools, so the company appears to be making moves to catch up to its competition.

It’s unclear exactly when the new model will be released. For now, OpenAI is inviting developers to submit feedback about what would make the model the most useful for them. You can contribute that feedback in this form on OpenAI’s website.

For more, check out the Studio Ghibli-esque AI images made with ChatGPT’s new image generator and our full review of the chatbot.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16, #889

Here are some hints — and the answers — for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 16, #889.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one. As a pop-culture junkie and game lover, I enjoyed the purple category. If you need help sorting the answers into groups, you’re in the right place. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Different strokes for different folks.

Green group hint: Ho-hum.

Blue group hint: Flags often qualify.

Purple group hint: Do not pass Go.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Technique.

Green group: Run-of-the-mill.

Blue group: Stripy things.

Purple group: Words on Monopoly squares.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is technique. The four answers are approach, method, philosophy and school.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is run-of-the-mill. The four answers are banal, everday, humdrum and pedestrian.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is stripy things.The four answers are barcode, IBM logo, rugby shirt and zebra.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words on Monopoly squares. The four answers are avenue, parking, railroad and tax.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16 #623

Here are hints — and answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle for Nov. 16, No. 623.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is tough. It’s a weird theme, and some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Around it goes.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: They’re often on a roll.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CARE, SCARE, CRASS, SWAT, PELL, HELL, SCAR, HALT, STENT, HALTS, TENT, POLL, LOTS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

FOIL, SCARF, SHAWL, STOLE, FLATBREAD, CELLOPHANE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is THATSAWRAP. To find it, start with the T that’s three letters up from the bottom of the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.