It’s not really relevant to this release specifically but it irks me that, in general, an “open weights model” is like an “open source machine code” version of Microsoft Windows. Yes, I guess I have open access to view the thing I am about to execute!
This Apple license is click wrap MIT with the rights, at least, to modify and redistribute the model itself. I suppose I should be grateful for that much openness, at least.
To extend the analogy, "closed source machine code" would be like conventional SaaS. There's an argument that shipping me a binary I can freely use is at least better than only providing SaaS.
> Yes, I guess I have open access to view the thing I am about to execute!
Better to execute locally than to execute remotely where you can't change or modify any part of the model though. Open weights at least mean you can retrain or distill it, which is not analogous to a compiled executable that you can't (generally) modify.
The output of a compiler is directly based on what you put in, the source code. That makes it a derivative work of the copyrightable source code, and thus copyright to the copyright holder of the source code, not the person who runs the compiler.
One might argue that model weights are derivative of the training material and copyright held be the copyright holder of the training material. The counter argument would be that the weights are significantly transformational.
This Apple license is click wrap MIT with the rights, at least, to modify and redistribute the model itself. I suppose I should be grateful for that much openness, at least.