Casado: Open-weight AI does not empower competitors like open-source software
Martin Casado · The Current Reality of American AI Policy: From ‘Pause AI’ to ‘Build’ · Aug 15, 2025 · at 23:48
Martin Casado, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), explains why open-weight AI models create a more defensible commercial model than traditional open-source software.
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“Open weights is not the ability to produce the weights. But open software is the ability to produce the software. Like if you give me open software, I can compile it, I can modify it, whatever, but giving open weights, you don't have it. You don't have the data pipeline, you know, when you're talking about open weights. So you don't actually enable your competitors in the same way open software enables it.”
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