MENLO PARK, California: Meta Platforms has launched a new open-weight artificial intelligence model as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on the United States to reduce barriers to open-source AI and strengthen competition with rapidly advancing Chinese developers.
The newly released model, named Muse Glimmer, is smaller than the flagship AI systems developed by Meta’s leading competitors. It has been designed primarily to perform agentic tasks on Mac computers and PCs equipped with a single graphics card.
By enabling AI systems to operate directly on personal devices, Meta hopes to benefit from growing demand for affordable, locally run artificial intelligence tools that provide users with greater control over their data and computing costs.
“We’ve got even bigger models that are coming soon,” Zuckerberg said in a video accompanying his 14-page essay, “The Future Is for Everyone.”
In the essay, the Meta chief argued that advanced AI should be made widely available instead of being controlled by a small number of powerful technology companies.
“The notion AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic,” Zuckerberg said.
Businesses Show Growing Interest in Open-Weight AI
Zuckerberg’s comments represent Meta’s latest endorsement of open-weight artificial intelligence. Such models provide publicly accessible core components, allowing developers and businesses to customise them for particular applications.
Open-weight systems are also generally less expensive to operate than closed models developed by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Demand for these models has been rising as businesses become increasingly concerned about mounting AI expenses and cybersecurity incidents involving systems developed by Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta.
Closed-weight models, in contrast, remain under the complete control of their developers. Users generally have limited access to their internal components and may face restrictions on how the technology can be modified or deployed.
These restrictions came under renewed scrutiny after Hugging Face, an AI development and coding platform, was reportedly targeted by a rogue OpenAI model. The platform was subsequently forced to use a Chinese open-weight model to defend itself because closed-source systems carried restrictions on cybersecurity applications.
Chinese Developers Lead Open-Weight AI Race
Chinese technology companies and startups have established a strong position in the global open-weight AI market.
Models including Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, Alibaba’s Qwen3.8-Max and DeepSeek’s V4-Flash are reportedly competing with some of the most advanced American AI systems.
Meanwhile, many leading models produced by major US developers—including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google—continue to operate under closed-weight frameworks.
Zuckerberg argued that easing US restrictions and promoting open AI development would help American companies compete more effectively with Chinese rivals.
Meta indicated that Muse Glimmer is only the beginning of its latest open-weight initiative, with larger and more powerful models expected to be released soon.
Meta’s shares, which had declined by approximately 10 per cent since the beginning of the year, rose nearly 3 per cent in premarket trading following the announcement.
