Meta Keeps Some AI Models Closed to Protect Safety and Strategy
As reported by TechCrunch, on 30th July 2025, through a public letter Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that while Meta wants to share the benefits of future AI broadly, it does not plan on sharing all of its fully open‑source its cutting-edge superintelligence models. This marks as a pivotal step for the company as it had built most of its reputation on open‑source AI through the LLaMA model family.
Balancing Transparency and Control
Even though Mark believes in Superintelligent AI, he raised his concerns about the possible risks. “We believe the benefits of superintelligence should be shared with the world as broadly as possible,” expressed Mark. “That said, superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns. We’ll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source.” Following which he emphasized that if it is necessary, Meta would reserve the right to keep exceptionally capable models closed. So how was it before?
Previously, Meta openly and publicly praised that LLaMA models are the cornerstone of its open-source strategy. But now with its Superintelligence Labs pursuing far more advanced AI, Mark’s letter complete openness is not ideal way to go about anymore.
Why This Reversal Matters
Shift from Open-Source to Proprietary Control
Meta’s this particular move breaks from its past policy of broad access to AI models. LLaMA models were successful and they did gain widespread use, the actual concerns grew over how genuinely open it was.
With this in mind Meta joins other tech giants like OpenAI and Google, and plans on keeping their highest-performing models proprietary. This is to ensure that they are rigorous about mitigating risks.
Strategic Stakes in Superintelligence Race
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs which is led by Alexandr Wang of Scale AI, now operate under a high-stakes environment. Furthermore, Meta has actually invested billions into talent and infrastructure. Why? To pursue its vision of personal intelligence. Personal superintelligence that knows us and understands us thoroughly and can help us achieve our goals. They are AI systems that self-improve and integrated into consumer devices like glasses and AR headsets.
Furthermore, as reported by Semi Analysis, Meta’s stock reportedly jumped over 11%. This was right after the announcement that the company aims to build large-scale GPU clusters and a data center network. For exactly what you may ask? This is to support this new AI architecture.
Open vs Closed AI Models- Key Differences
| Aspect | Open‑Source AI Models | Closed / Proprietary AI Models |
|---|---|---|
| Access | It is publicly available for anyone. Anyone can download, use, and often modify. | Access is restricted and is usually available only to customers who pay for it, or to approved partners, or to internal teams. |
| Innovation | These models encourage community-driven development, rapid experimentation, and push for global collaboration. | Innovation is actually driven internally in these models; and changes, improvements are controlled by the owning company. |
| Transparency | Model architecture, weights, and sometimes training data are openly shared. | Limited or no visibility into model internals, architecture, or training data. |
| Safety & Risk | Harder to enforce safe usage; potential for misuse, bias amplification, or harmful applications at scale. | Easier to enforce safety measures, usage restrictions, and compliance standards. |
| Monetization | Harder to directly monetize; often relies on services, support, or cloud hosting. | Clearer revenue streams via subscriptions, APIs, enterprise licensing. |
| Examples | LLaMA (with caveats), Mistral AI, BLOOM, Stable Diffusion. | GPT‑4, Claude 3, Gemini Ultra, Meta’s upcoming superintelligence models. |
What’s Next for Meta and AI Openness
It’s safe to say that with this move, priorities are going to change. From open collaboration, the focus is shifting toward prioritizing safety, increasing monetization, and gaining a competitive edge. This change also comes amid an intensifying AI talent war between Meta and OpenAI, as both companies race to attract the brightest minds in the field. Still, Meta says this move applies only to its most capable creations, and it will continue to open‑source its lower‑tier models. You can dive deeper into this development in our breakdown of the Meta partnership with MidJourney.
