Meta has launched a powerful new “open” model, which contains at least one surprise.
The company says that the system, named Meta Spark Open, is the most powerful open weight model made by a US company. Open weight models are so-called because their developers make public the “weights” that decide how a system will respond to a request.
That means that they are available for anyone to download to their own devices, as well as to adjust. It means that they can be used on a device itself, rather than on a company’s servers, as well as allowing them to be adapted to different purposes.
It was that particular characteristic that led to a surprise perhaps even bigger than Meta’s announcement.
As Meta announced the new model, it also said that it had been working with Apple to ensure that it ran well on its Mac Studio computer. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on X that Muse Spark Open “runs great” on Apple’s hardware, because of work with Apple and its new chief executive, John Ternus.
“Congrats to the team!” Mr Ternus wrote in reply. “Amazing to run a model of Muse Spark Open's caliber and scale this efficiently, right from your desk.”
The collaboration represents an unexpected peace among the two companies, which have long had a complicated and sometimes antagonistic relationship. The two have repeatedly clashed over a variety of issues, most notably conflicts between Apple’s commitment to privacy and Meta’s use of advertising in its business model.
But the release of the new system seemingly shows how the race to build and embrace AI features is bringing unexpected collaborators together. It also demonstrates how some in the technology industry including Apple and Meta are looking to move beyond AI systems that rely on controversial data centres and difficult-to-acquire chips, and instead move towards running artificial intelligence on people’s own devices.
That is made more possible with the release of open weight models, since they can be downloaded and installed on users’ own computers. Meta’s release of Muse Spark Open follows the launch of a number of open weight models in recent days, including from competitors such as Nvidia and Mistral.
Despite the positives of open weight models, however, many US companies including Meta have chosen to release most or all of their systems in ways that ensure they control the whole experience. They have argued that doing so keeps the models safer because the companies can more effectively ensure they are not used for dangerous purposes, but it also means that they can increase revenue by requiring customers to pay for monthly subscriptions or show advertising.
That resistance to open weight models among US companies has meant that much of the development of the technology has been undertaken by Chinese competitors. Many of the most popular and powerful Chinese AI companies – including DeepSeek, Moonshot and Z.ai – have launched highly capable open weight systems of their own, and Meta and other US companies have yet to catch up to their performance.
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