Ex-OpenAI CTO Murati's Thinking Machines drops Inkling, a 975B parameter model that leads US labs but trails China

Editor's take

Thinking Machines Lab, co-founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has unveiled Inkling, a multimodal open-weights model boasting 975 billion parameters. This development positions Inkling at the forefront of U.S.-based open-weights models according to the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, though it still lags behind certain Chinese counterparts.

The significance lies in the increasing parameter counts of open-weights models, signaling a potential democratization of advanced AI capabilities and a shift away from solely proprietary systems. This could empower researchers and developers globally, fostering innovation but also raising concerns about responsible deployment and the widening gap with leading closed models.

Future developments to monitor include Inkling's performance on more diverse benchmarks and its adoption rate within the research community. The trajectory will also depend on whether Thinking Machines Labs can sustain this pace of development and address the inherent safety and ethical considerations that accompany such powerful, openly accessible AI.