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OpenAI delays open model release
OpenAI’s highly anticipated open model will arrive later than expected. CEO Sam Altman announced on Tuesday via X (formerly Twitter) that the company is delaying the release, initially slated for early summer, to sometime after June.
“We are going to take a little more time with our open-weights model… expect it later this summer but not June,” Altman wrote. “Our research team did something unexpected and quite amazing and we think it will be very, very worth the wait, but needs a bit longer.”
Aiming for Industry-Leading Reasoning Capabilities
The upcoming model is OpenAI’s first open-weight release in years and is designed to rival the best in the field. It’s expected to offer reasoning capabilities comparable to OpenAI’s proprietary “o-series” models — with the company hoping to surpass existing open models like DeepSeek’s R1.
OpenAI’s goal is clear: to set a new benchmark in open-source AI by combining powerful reasoning with broader accessibility.
A Crowded and Competitive Field
The open model landscape is heating up. Just this week, Mistral — known for consistently releasing open models — launched its Magistral family of AI reasoning models. Meanwhile, Chinese lab Qwen debuted a flexible hybrid system in April that can switch between fast answers and deeper, more deliberate reasoning.
This growing competition raises the stakes for OpenAI, which now needs to deliver not just a good model, but one that clearly stands out.
More Than Just Performance
While OpenAI is focused on pushing benchmark performance, the company is also exploring advanced features for the open model. According to TechCrunch, internal discussions have floated ideas like integrating the open model with OpenAI’s more powerful, cloud-based tools to handle complex queries.
However, it remains uncertain whether such features will be included in the final release.
Rebuilding Trust with the Open-Source Community
This release marks more than just a technical milestone — it’s a reputational one. Altman has publicly acknowledged that OpenAI hasn’t always embraced openness, saying the company has landed on the “wrong side of history” when it comes to open-source models.
Now, OpenAI is under pressure to prove its commitment to openness with a model that can genuinely compete with — and ideally outperform — the best the open-source world has to offer.