The Download: open model trade-offs and geothermal power’s promise

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Open models have real benefits. Do they outweigh the risks?

Anthropic recently released a report arguing that a powerful new model released by the Chinese company Z.ai, poses a major cyberattack risk. Its core concern was that it is freely available for anyone to download and modify.

The warning was the latest flashpoint in a debate over whether frontier AI models should be open or kept behind the doors of frontier labs. Safety advocates warn that open models can be misused by bad actors, while supporters argue they could prevent a handful of companies from controlling this powerful technology.

Here’s why the debate over open AI is more complicated than it seems.

This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming …