Open-Source

The AI world has always been unusual, but starting in early 2025, it became increasingly so. LLM developers began releasing and updating models at unprecedented paces, while more giants and startups joined the AI rush—from foundational generative models (text, image, audio, video) to specific applications. It’s a new kind of gold rush, but fueled by GPUs and transformer architectures. On February 1st, DeepSeek released its open-source model DeepSeek R1, quickly recognized for rivaling—or even exceeding—the reasoning power of ChatGPT-o1. The impact was immediate. Just days later, a screenshot from Reddit showed Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, admitting: ...

🧠 Understanding the Core AI Model Types Before building a smart AI workflow, it’s essential to understand the three main categories of models: Model Type Examples Best For Encoder-only BERT, DistilBERT Classification, entity recognition Decoder-only GPT-4.5, GPT-4o Text generation, summarization Encoder-Decoder BART, T5 Format conversion (e.g., text ↔ JSON) Use the right model for the right job—don’t overuse LLMs where smaller models will do. 🧾 Why Traditional Approaches Often Fall Short ❌ LLM-Only (e.g., GPT-4.5 for everything) Expensive: GPT-4.5 API usage can cost $5–$15 per 1,000 tokens depending on tier. Resource-heavy for local deployment (requires GPUs). High risk if sending sensitive financial data to cloud APIs. Overkill for parsing emails or extracting numbers. ❌ SaaS Automation Tools (e.g., QuickBooks AI, Dext) Limited transparency: You can’t fine-tune or inspect the logic. Lack of custom workflow integration. Privacy concerns: Client data stored on external servers. Recurring subscription costs grow with team size. Often feature-rich but rigid—one-size-fits-all solutions. ✅ A Better Path: Modular, Privacy-First AI Workflow Using a combination of open-source models and selective LLM use, small firms can achieve automation that is cost-effective, privacy-preserving, and fully controllable. ...

A multilingual large language model developed by the BigScience initiative, capable of generating text in 46 languages and 13 programming languages.

An open-source reasoning model achieving state-of-the-art performance in math, code, and logic tasks.

A 12-billion-parameter rectified flow transformer capable of generating images from text descriptions.

A high-quality text-to-image latent diffusion model trained on LAION-2B, enabling fast and flexible image generation.

A flagship text-to-image model with improved realism, composition, and support for high-resolution 1024x1024 image generation.

A multilingual speech recognition and translation model by OpenAI, supporting 100+ languages with improved robustness and low-latency transcription.