Usually set backs are a bad thing, but Sam Altman just announced that the release of the open-weight AI model from OpenAI will be slightly delayed because of “something unexpected and quite amazing.”
The AI market is nothing if not competitive right now. More and more companies are joining the fray to see which platform will be top dog when the dust settles, which means even the slightest delay could have a big impact.
OpenAI has the most to lose as the owner of the most popular AI chatbot in 2025, so let’s hope this delay is as worth it as Altman seems to think.
Open AI Announced Open-Weight AI Model Delay
In a post on X, CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman announced that the upcoming open-weights model that was slated to release in June would be delayed by at least a month.
“We are going to take a little more time with our open-weights model, i.e. expect it later this summer but not June.” – Sam Altman on X
OpenAI initially announced the open-weight AI model in April with promises that it would “gather feedback” from developers to ensure it meets industry standards.
Why Is the Open-Weight Model Delayed?
It’s been a few months since OpenAI initially announced its open-weight AI model, and the market hasn’t stayed still in the meantime. In fact, there has been some notable competition in the open-weight AI model space, with Meta, DeepSeek, and xAI all now offering open-weight options.
This may be adding to the pressure on OpenAI and Altman to provide a platform that is competitive enough to match expectations, leading to a delay on the guise of “something amazing” on the horizon.
“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.” – Sam Altman on X
Whether or not OpenAI sticks to that summer deadline remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say the open-weight AI model better seriously impress given all this build-up.
What Is an Open-Weight AI Model?
An open-weight model describes a system that has its core settings — or “weights” — available to the public, allowing other developers to view, comment on, and edit them for their own particular needs.
You might be more familiar with the term “open-source,” which is a bit similar, although open-weight describes just the core settings being available, whereas open-source offers all the code to a particular platform.
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All that to say, the open-weight model from OpenAI will provide a bit of transparency on the platform, which the company could certainly use after launching the generative AI revolution we have on our hands in 2025.
