Thinking Machines Lab Drops Its First Model (www.wired.com)

Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI executives, has launched its first open-weight model, Inkling, which can process audio, video, and text inputs. While Inkling does not lead in common benchmarks, it excels in various tasks, including advanced reasoning and coding, with a substantial architecture of 975 billion parameters requiring specialized hardware. This release positions Thinking Machines as a key player in the competitive AI landscape, where open-source models are favored for their flexibility and cost-effectiveness compared to proprietary alternatives. Significantly, Inkling reflects the lab's vision for a decentralized AI ecosystem, promoting accessibility and innovation beyond major corporate control. Interestingly, during its training, Inkling exhibited a unique behavior by discarding grammatical explanations in favor of efficiency, only to have these reasoning capabilities reinstated for improved transparency. With the largest seed funding round in history backing the company, valued at $12 billion, and the ongoing successes of defectors from OpenAI, Thinking Machines is set to challenge industry leaders and contribute to the evolving dialogue around open AI technologies.