The tide has turned. With the December 2024 launch of DeepSeek’s free-for-all V3 large language model (LLM) and the January 2025 release of DeepSeek’s R1 (the AI reasoning model that rivals the capabilities of OpenAI’s O1), the open-source movement started by Chinese firms has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
And:
DeepSeek, adopting an open-source approach was an effective strategy for catching up, as it allowed them to use contributions from a broader community of developers.”
I’ve read similar descriptions in other articles, seems your claim is false.
Investigating further I can see it is NOT open source. All the articles saying that are lying, probably unknowingly just as I believed the claim, they probably did too, and I’m NOT being sarcastic!
I have no idea why publishing these “weights” is considered open source, it has nothing to do with Open Source as defined by OSI, which I believe has a historical right to the term.
Oh I didn’t detect any snarkiness, just you being to the point, which is a thing I appreciate.
But I’m often considered impolite. I think it’s a culture thing.
But I must admit I am annoyed by you contradicting me, but it’s even worse that you were right.
I find that generally offensive.
So I’ll go sulk in corner for a few minutes. 😜 😋 🤣
Still debatable, the weights are the code. That’s a bit like saying “X software is not open source because it has equations but it doesn’t include the proofs that they’re derived from”.
no,
your changing the definition of open source software. which has been around a lot longer than AI has.
source code is what defines open source.
what deepseek has is open weights. they publish the results of their learning only. not the source that produced it.
https://techwireasia.com/2025/07/china-open-source-ai-models-global-rankings/
And:
I’ve read similar descriptions in other articles, seems your claim is false.
can you show me the actual source code?
the human readable code, not the weights.
The (claimed) source:
https://github.com/deepseek-ai
Investigating further I can see it is NOT open source. All the articles saying that are lying, probably unknowingly just as I believed the claim, they probably did too, and I’m NOT being sarcastic!
I have no idea why publishing these “weights” is considered open source, it has nothing to do with Open Source as defined by OSI, which I believe has a historical right to the term.
I apologize.
forgive my snarkiness. its usually the quickest way to this realization.
Oh I didn’t detect any snarkiness, just you being to the point, which is a thing I appreciate.
But I’m often considered impolite. I think it’s a culture thing.
But I must admit I am annoyed by you contradicting me, but it’s even worse that you were right.
I find that generally offensive.
So I’ll go sulk in corner for a few minutes. 😜 😋 🤣
Still debatable, the weights are the code. That’s a bit like saying “X software is not open source because it has equations but it doesn’t include the proofs that they’re derived from”.
what has been published by deep seek is the music, not the software, the music.
In the same way as an Excel spreadsheet containing a crosstab of analytics results is “the code.”
It’s processed input for a visualization/playback mechanism, not source code.