People & DiscourseZhang Peng (张鹏, Zhipu CEO)Mar 31, 2025Statement

Zhipu CEO Zhang Peng says open source does not mean completely free

Said open source does not mean completely free and that there are follow-on costs for technical staff and maintenance. Pointed out that even if you get a model for free, after a few people put in a few months, the conclusion is that it cannot be used

Why it matters

A founder from inside China's open-weight camp directly broke the equation that open means free

Source — Primary sources first; secondary reports are labelled “Press”

Pressfinance.ifeng.comhttps://finance.ifeng.com/c/8iAdhremmcQ

Added in Week 35, 2026 · See that week

Same week

Apr 5Meta releases Llama 4 Scout and Maverick amid LMArena submission controversyPress Apr 3Anthropic publishes Reasoning models don't always say what they thinkOfficial Apr 3AI Futures Project publishes the scenario AI 2027Official Apr 2Yann LeCun tells Newsweek LLMs will be largely obsolete within 5 yearsPress

Nearby on the same axis

Apr 2025Dario Amodei publishes The Urgency of InterpretabilityOfficial Apr 2, 2025Yann LeCun tells Newsweek LLMs will be largely obsolete within 5 yearsPress Apr 10, 2025Wang Xiaochuan recasts Baichuan as an AI healthcare company in all-staff letterPress Mar 18, 2025Demis Hassabis says we will start moving toward AGI over the next 5–10 yearsPress