Open AI models bring new opportunities and trade-offs for builders

Open models are gaining traction among startups, enterprises and governments because they can offer lower costs, greater control and more flexibility. In a TechCrunch Equity podcast discussion, Irene Solaiman, Chief Policy Officer and SVP of Strategy at Hugging Face, examined what organizations should consider before building on them.

Solaiman discussed how teams choose models, tools and infrastructure, and why using the most capable model is not always the most practical option. The conversation also addressed how companies can create and retain value when models are freely available, including the challenge of earning money from open systems.

The discussion turned to competition between the United States and China. It considered whether well-funded companies such as Nvidia may be needed to develop an open frontier model capable of competing with Chinese systems, and what could happen if Chinese models became the global default. Recent attacks on open AI platforms also highlighted a central security question: how to protect an open ecosystem without making it closed.