Open Weight AI Models Explained for Everyone

In this video CJ answers questions and clears up misconceptions about open weight models. He explains who creates models, how they're created, how we access them, what open weights actually are and discusses the risks of running models. 00:00 - intro 01:06 - who creates models 02:13 - how are models created? 06:19 - how do we access these models? 06:27 - access models directly from an AI Lab 08:41 - access models indirectly with API access 10:01 - access models directly from a 3rd party 11:32 - running, tweaking and fine tuning models yourself 13:10 - you can run open weight models at home 13:33 - model access summary 14:04 - what are open weight models? 18:02 - what are the risks of using models? 21:08 - thanks Axios: The secret Trump administration battle to fight Chinese AI | https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/ai-us-china-open-source-kimi US threatens sanctions against Chinese AI models over IP theft | https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/us-threatens-sanctions-against-chinese-ai-models-over-ip-theft/ Judge approves a $1.5B Anthropic settlement over pirated books used to train the Claude chatbot | https://apnews.com/article/ai-anthropic-copyright-settlement-claude-books-bartz-74b140444023898aeba8579b6e9f0d63 The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement | https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/27/24016212/new-york-times-openai-microsoft-lawsuit-copyright-infringement Artists claim “big” win in copyright suit fighting AI image generators | https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/artists-claim-big-win-in-copyright-suit-fighting-ai-image-generators/ Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligence | https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k3 Qwen 3.8 Launch | https://x.com/Alibaba_Qwen/status/2078759124914098291 Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 | https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access Amazon CEO’s Talks With U.S. Officials Triggered Crackdown on Anthropic Models | https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/amazon-ceos-talks-with-u-s-officials-triggered-crackdown-on-anthropic-models-dcc90578 Booz Allen: What’s In America’s Code? | https://www.boozallen.com/expertise/cybersecurity/whats-in-americas-code.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: https://x.com/syntaxfm Scott: https://x.com/stolinski Wes: https://x.com/wesbos CJ: https://x.com/CodingGarden Randy: https://www.youtube.com/@randyrektor http://www.syntax.fm Brought to you by https://sentry.io/syntax #explainer #howitsmade #lore #china #webdevelopment #programming #syntax #syntaxfm #webdev Corrections: 2:04 The map of China shows Taiwan which is not part of China. 8:17 The map of China shows Taiwan which is not part of China. 10:58 The map of China shows Taiwan which is not part of China. 11:23 The map of China shows Taiwan which is not part of China.