Summary
Alibaba has launched Qwen 2.5-Max, an AI model it claims outperforms DeepSeek-V3, OpenAI’s GPT-4o, and Meta’s Llama-3.1-405B.
The release, coinciding with Lunar New Year, reflects mounting competition in China’s AI sector after DeepSeek’s rapid rise.
DeepSeek’s recent advancements have pressured Chinese rivals like ByteDance and Baidu to upgrade their models and cut prices.
DeepSeek’s founder downplays price wars, focusing on artificial general intelligence (AGI). The company’s lean, research-focused structure contrasts with China’s tech giants, which face challenges in AI innovation.
But I could use it as a starting point for training and build from it with my own data. I could fork it. I couldn’t fork llama, I don’t have the weights.
You can also fork proprietary code that is source available (depending on the specific terms of that particular proprietary license), but that doesn’t make it open source.
Fair point about llama not having open weights though. So it’s not as proprietary as llama. It still shouldn’t be called open source if the training data that it needs to function is proprietary.