OpenAI Just Released Its Most Important AI Tool Since ChatGPT—Here's Why Its Big News

In a path-breaking move, OpenAI has released two new AI models called gpt‑oss‑120b and gpt‑oss‑20b. For the first time since GPT‑2 in 2019, they’re letting anyone download and run the full model on their own computer. That means you control it—not OpenAI. Anyone can download and run these AI models —without needing internet access, expensive subscriptions, or even asking OpenAI’s permission. This is the first time in over five years that OpenAI has truly opened its AI technology to the public in such a big way.

What Is “GPT‑OSS”?

“Open weight” means the full model files (think of them like a recipe) are publicly available under a permissive license (Apache 2.0). You can even use them in your own projects and apps. They come in two sizes:

gpt‑oss‑120b (approximately 120 billion “parameters”), needs beefy hardware—like an 80 GB GPU. This is meant for high-end machines.

gpt‑oss‑20b (approximately 20 billion parameters), light enough to run with 16 GB memory, so even a regular desktop or laptop works.

Why is this a big deal?

Until now, AI has always lived behind company walls—you needed to access it through a website or app, and you never had full control. Now, OpenAI is giving users full control, allowing them to even build with it. Potential outcomes of these releases could lead to smarter offline apps (no internet needed), better privacy (nothing sent to cloud servers), AI-powered tools in hospitals, rural schools, and small businesses, and new tech products built by startups and solo developers.

Is builidng AI tools with these models safe?

OpenAI says that it has tested the models thoroughly—including simulating malicious usage like for cyber or bio threats—and found that even hackers couldn’t easily turn them into powerful dangerous tools. But risk remains, once you release a model publicly, you can’t withdraw it. OpenAI recommends that anyone using gpt‑oss must build their own safety checks.

Just to give you a fair idea of the enormity of this release, its like Apple releasing the iPhone internal memo. The company has given all the tools to build your own iPhone from scratch. OpenAI has done something similar with gpt-oss.

To download these open models, head here.