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Asian benchmarks jump after oil prices sink in response to the Iran ceasefire
Asian shares are surging as oil prices plunged after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Viewpoint: FP10 should remain open, excellent and secure
Europe is right to worry about research security. Foreign interference is real. So is the misuse of sensitive knowledge. Universities working in sensitive areas such as AI, quantum, semiconductors and advanced materials cannot afford to ignore the geopolitical environment around them.But Europe is in danger of drawing the wrong conclusion, one that would increase, not reduce, its strategic vulnerabilities.If the EU applies an “EU preference” logic to the next Framework Programme for research and innovation (FP10), it will weaken one of its greatest strategic assets: a research system built on openness, excellence and international collaboration. In the name of security, Europe could end up advancing science more slowly, innovating less effectively and making itself less attractive to global talent and partners in advanced science and technology.That would be a serious mistake.The EU preference included in Article 10 of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund may make sense in some industrial or deployment contexts, but is far harder to justify when applied to collaborative research in advanced science and technology, where excellence and global connectivity are crucial. Research is not procurement. It does not thrive when isolated. It advances through access to the best ideas, the best people, the best facilities and the best data, wherever they are found. This is why FP10 should not simply absorb industrial policy logic by default. Doing so would risk importing instruments that are ill-suited to research and that ultimately increase vulnerability rather than resilience.For universities of science and technology, the issue is especially acute. These institutions sit at the frontier of knowledge and technology creation in the very fields Europe sees as critical for its future competitiveness and resilience. They know better than most that security risks are real. But they also know that openness and security are not opposites. In practice, they have to be made to work together. Research security is not about closing doors. It is about building resilience through collective responsibility, trust, proportionate safeguards and better governance. That is a fundamentally different approach from default restriction.The risks of non-collaborationThe real danger in the current debate is that Europe talks too much about the risks of collaboration and not enough about the risks of non-collaboration. Those risks are strategic too. Cut researchers off from international networks and Europe loses access to knowledge, data, infrastructures and talent. Slow down global collaboration in critical technologies and Europe slows down its own progress on cutting-edge science. Make participation rules unpredictable and Europe weakens its attractiveness to researchers and investors alike.In other words, over-restricting collaboration will create strategic vulnerabilities, particularly in advanced science and technologies.This point is often underestimated in policy discussions that frame openness mainly as a value to be defended. Europe’s scientific strength, technological development and long-term competitiveness depend on remaining connected to the best research ecosystems in the world. For a continent that wants to accelerate deep tech, strengthen industrial capacity and reduce strategic dependencies, weakening the excellence base would be self-defeating. That does not mean ignoring risk. Quite the opposite. Universities are already strengthening due diligence, internal governance, awareness-raising, screening procedures and compliance support. Across Europe, institutions are working to manage risks linked to foreign interference, sanctions, export controls and the misuse of research. The right response is not complacency. It is better risk management. But that means targeted, evidence-based and proportionate measures, not blunt top-down restrictions with wide spillover effects. In the daily reality of universities, openness and restriction often coexist. The real challenge is how to apply safeguards without sliding into securitisation that damages academic freedom, open science and international cooperation. Restrict partners, not nationsMore restrictive treatment of collaborators from European Economic Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, or from Switzerland and the UK, is strategically very difficult to justify. These are deeply embedded partners in Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem. Beyond that, Europe should still resist default exclusion and instead rely on case-by-case assessment. The relevant question is not nationality in the abstract. It is the actual risk profile of a collaboration: the institution, the affiliations, the field, the knowledge involved, the intended use and the safeguards available. Screening should focus on institutions and affiliations rather than nationality alone. Related articlesParliament ‘misreads’ link between Horizon Europe and ECF, Commission official saysFrustration grows at governance gap in next Horizon EuropeIf EU preference logic is imported into research without careful calibration, the likely result is a chilling effect. Researchers may step back from legitimate and beneficial collaboration, even where risks are manageable. International partners may see Europe as less predictable. And Europe may end up undermining the very excellence base it needs to compete, scale up and lead in strategic technologies, thereby increasing its dependence on others.FP10 should do the opposite. It should remain open by default, with restrictions used only exceptionally, and then on the basis of clear evidence. It should integrate research security into open science and research integrity frameworks, not set them against each other. And it should recognise that academic freedom, scientific excellence and responsible international collaboration are not obstacles to Europe’s security, they are part of it. Europe needs stronger tools to protect itself. But it also needs the discipline to avoid measures that would weaken it and increase its strategic vulnerabilities in the process. In FP10, that means staying open, excellent and secure.Louise Drogoul is senior advisor for innovation and sustainability at the Cesaer university association.
NovaBridge Reports Full Year 2025 Financial Results and Provides Business Update
Successful transformation to global biotech platform with two mid-stage potential best-in-class/first-in-class programs, givastomig and VIS-101, with compelling proof-of-concept dataGivastomig, a potential best-in-class/first-in-class Claudin 18.2-directed bispecific antibody for gastric cancer, has shown robust and durable responses with broad CLDN18.2 activity, favorable safety, as well as potential eligibility for FDA’s Accelerated Approval Pathway with potential initiation of a registrationa
NFL mock draft roundup: Experts predict first round weeks before draft
The 2026 NFL Draft begins on April 23. Here are the latest expert projections for the first round from around the web.
16 offensive tackle prospects who fit Packers experience benchmarks
Green Bay has coveted experience, ideally on the left side in their draft picks at offensive tackle. Here are 16 prospects who fit the bill in 2026.
Former Migos rapper Offset is stable after being shot outside a Florida casino, spokesperson says
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Xtreme One Entertainment Secures Temporary Restraining Order Against Lender Williamsburg Venture Holdings, Halting Alleged Fraudulent Transfer and Sale of $XONI Stock
Emergency Court Order Requires Immediate Return of Shares by Williamsburg and Securities Intermediaries Based on Alleged Breach of Contract and Fraudulent TransferGRAND RAPIDS, Mich., April 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xtreme One Entertainment, Inc. (OTCQB: XONI), a diversified media and live-event sports company, and parent company of Xtreme Fighting Championships (XFC), today announced it was granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) based on the Company’s lawsuit that alleges fraud, breach
At $150 off, the new MacBook Air is now cheaper than last year’s model
If the new Air’s price increase turned you off, this deal fixes that.
Breeding Digest: Gun Runner Meaning Business
GI Santa Anita Oaks winner Meaning (Gun Runner) was part of a big weekend for her sire and is one of the favorites for Kentucky Oaks
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Analysis, Benchmarks & Efficiency - Serious rival for Apple and a problem for AMD & Intel
Notebookcheck review/analysis of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite & X2 Elite Extreme mobile ARM processors.
Asus’ lightweight 16-inch laptop is a formidable MacBook Air alternative
Jumbo-sized, yet svelte.
NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals take Rueben Bain 3rd overall
Sam Monson dropped his mock draft on his podcast. See who the Arizona Cardinals' pick is at third overall.
MAGA Is Winning Its War Against U.S. Science
Source: NBER With all the other terrible news right now, you may not have noticed that Donald Trump is in the process of killing American science. OK, that’s an exaggeration — but not that much of an exaggeration. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal calls for a gigantic increase in military spending combined with severe cuts to social programs. But as the chart above shows, it also calls for debilitating reductions in research funding. Furthermore, Trump appointees have already been strangling science by sharply reducing the rate at which research grants are approved. Here, for example, is the number of new grants approved by the National Science Foundation: Source: Nature Large numbers of existing grants have also been frozen or terminated, especially in the study of infectious diseases. Add to this a sharp drop in visas issued to foreign students, who often play a direct role in research and who help support academic departments that do research: Put all of this together, and much U.S. scientific research is set to come to a screeching halt — not a few years from now, but over the course of the next year or two. This new assault on U.S. science is taking place at a time when the role of American science in the world has already been greatly eroded. The chart below, based on research recently reported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, measures national strength in science by the share of publications in highly ranked journals. In the 1990s the United States had more such publications than the rest of the world combined. Since then we’ve dropped into third place — well behind China and slightly below the European Union. And this was before the Trump administration’s attack on science had time to take its full effect. Source Some erosion in U.S. scientific preeminence was inevitable given China’s growing sophistication and wealth. But we’ve also fallen behind Europe, even though everyone says that Europe is lagging economically and technologically. Claims about Europe’s underperformance are, in fact, dubious if one looks hard at the data. But it’s still striking to see America lagging. What’s going on? There are presumably multiple factors behind America’s scientific lag. But even before Trump II the growing hostility of the U.S. right to science surely had some negative effect. And since the rise of MAGA G.O.P. attitudes toward science in general have become overwhelmingly hostile. This is true even for the Republican rank and file: And while I haven’t been able to find good survey data, it’s obvious that the anti-science turn has been even more pronounced — and began earlier — among the Republican political elite. Chris Mooney published The Republican War on Science in 2005, and even then was describing a longstanding trend. Why have Republicans turned so anti-science? Part of the answer is that they believe that scientists don’t support them. And they’re right! A study of who scientists give money to shows that only a small percentage gave money to Republicans even 20 years ago, and that almost none of them donate to Republicans now: Social scientists have always been strongly pro-Democratic, while there used to be a significant number of physical, “hard” scientists supporting the GOP. But these days physicists are almost as uniformly Democratic, or at least non-Republican, as sociologists. Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics. So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power. Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto. And as I said, we aren’t talking about something that will happen over the course of multiple years: The U.S. scientific enterprise is threatened with severe damage, even collapse, over just the next year. There are many reasons to find this prospect horrifying: Think of all the beneficial advances, affecting almost every part of life, that won’t happen because U.S. science — still crucial to the world — has been eviscerated. But think, also, of America’s international standing. Can a nation that has forfeited its role as a leader, or even a contender, in global science, still be a Great Power? No. MUSICAL CODA
The MacBook Neo is proof that Google’s Pixel plan was right all along
Apple's MacBook Neo validates the Google Pixel strategy by emphasizing user experience and ecosystem growth over raw hardware benchmarks.
Finding Trends in Sports Stats and ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Puzzles
Ben Blatt, a data reporter for The Upshot, dreams up inventive ways to answer questions like: “Is Taylor Swift actually increasing N.F.L. ratings?”
Upcoming Tech and Sourcing Webinar on Digital Health
Join partner Ben Klaber and of counsels Ariel Seeley and Eric Pennesi on Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm ET for a discussion on innovations and trends in digital health. Topics will include artificial intelligence and connected devices, as well as data governance and regulatory developments.
FTI Consulting Adds Three Leading Mining and Resources Business Improvement Experts
SYDNEY, April 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) today announced the appointments of James Chapman, Steve Dyson and Franz Wentzel as Senior Managing Directors in its Australian Transformation practice, bringing their experience as former global heads of Big Four accounting firm mining practices to help clients realise their full value potential. The appointments of Mr. Chapman, Mr. Dyson and Mr. Wentzel continue the firm’s growth of its Transformation – Mining team, fo
Dodgers Reveal Reason for Will Smith Benching
Dalton Rushing is starting in Will Smith's place in the Los Angeles Dodgers' Monday afternoon game at the Toronto Blue Jays.
New Medicare Payment Rate Expected. Why It’s a Big Deal for Healthcare Stocks.
About 35 million beneficiaries are in Medicare Advantage plans this year, according to the health research group KFF.
Clozer Launches AI-Powered Lead Generation System to Help UAE Businesses Acquire More Clients
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clozer, a Dubai-based lead generation company founded by Thageeshan Theiventhira...
Savannah Guthrie returns to 'Today' anchor desk for first time since mother's disappearance
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The biggest mistake HR leaders make when pitching new benefits to their CFO
HR leaders who pitch wellness programs by leading with employee happiness are making a costly mistake. The secret? Crunch the numbers.
Live updates: Trump's massive military request faces tough climb, senator says
Get live updates and the latest news as Sen. Tim Kaine casts doubt on Trump's $1.5 trillion military request and Ruben Gallego considers a run for president in 2028.
Healthwatch: Study shows how coffee could benefit brain health
As you’re drinking your morning coffee, you may be glad to hear that a cup of joe may help reduce your risk for dementia.
Exclusive: Yuzu Health raises $35M for health benefits
As health insurance costs are rising, so is demand for different types of plans and coverage.
Bengals News (4/6): Taking Andrew Whitworth’s advice
Andrew Whitworth cares enough to want to help.
As a business founder and as a man, I regret the decades I spent confined by masculinity
Making women more powerful in my farm business and closing the gender pay gap was not just the right thing to do – it has brought commercial benefits, says Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson
Greens powders are booming. But do they really work?
Superfood powders have become a key part of wellness routines, marketed as an easy way to boost energy, promote gut health, and get your daily nutrients. But nutritionists said the benefits of these supplements are largely unproven.
How a Diabetes Drug May Echo the Benefits of Exercise in Prostate Cancer Care
Researchers found that metformin raises an exercise‑linked metabolic molecule in prostate cancer patients, offering insight into cancer care.
How a family succession feud positioned 2 New Orleans politicians to benefit
“We feel the system has failed us and our estate was used to benefit others."
Bordonaro: Legislature’s labor agenda risks hurting business competitiveness
With the Labor Committee approving 48 bills in six weeks, the cumulative weight of new scheduling rules, striking worker benefits and operational mandates risks making Connecticut a harder place to do business at exactly the wrong time.
A global consensus establishes a basis for measuring and improving gut health
While “gut health” is becoming a popular term, mainly in media and marketing claims but also in the clinical context, researchers have not yet nailed down a definition. Now, a global group of 13 scientists and clinicians updates a consensus definition of gut health and implications from bench to bedside.
76ers lose Cameron Payne to hamstring injury amid playoff chase
The Philadelphia 76ers are in the midst of a chase to clinch a spot in the NBA playoffs, but they just suffered a loss to their a core member of their bench.
Train transfer hub linked to reduced healthcare spending
Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University and Japan System Techniques Co., Ltd. evaluated the 2019 Osaka-Higashi Line station openings using a natural experiment and health insurance claims. While the overall rail-line effect was not significant, Shigino Station, a well-connected transfer hub, showed an estimated cumulative reduction of about JPY 62,500 per medically treated person over four years, highlighting that station connectivity and local context may determinewhether new stations deliver healthcare cost benefits.
Marlins' Pete Fairbanks makes 3rd career start before paternity leave
Fairbanks threw 27 pitches in his lone inning, allowing three hits, including a three-run home run by Yankees first baseman Ben Rice that gave New York a 3-1 lead.
GMB Management Software for Multi Location Business
GBPPromote GBPPromote Indore, Madhya Pradesh, April 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GBPPromote, a fast-growing Google Business Profile (GBP) management software, is gaining strong traction among agencies, franchises, enterprises, and individual businesses looking for a simpler and more scalable way to manage their local presence on Google. Adopted widely by franchises, agencies, and enterprise teams for multi-location GMB management, the platform is built to handle the kind of operational work that
Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Easter message: We have a shot at working with God to write ‘a new chapter for human possibility’
This Week in Missouri Politics - April 5, 2026
Scott Faughn is joined by Governor of Missouri Mike Kehoe. On the panel Scott is joined by Reps. Bennie Cook, Mazzie Christensen, Nick Kimble and Missouri Times Editor Jake Kroesen.
It’s-a-hit: ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ box office blasts off with $372.5 million globally
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What is a biological age test? Experts talk benefits, risks of at-home testing
It’s important to understand what over-the-counter biological age test kits can — and can’t — do before buying them.
Why Smart Founders Build Big Business Infrastructure Before They Scale
Scaling a company takes more than grit and growth. Founders who invest early in institutional-grade benefits can reduce risk, attract top talent, and build a culture that performs under pressure.
Linux Sees Fixes For Its GD-ROM Driver In 2026 For Sega Dreamcast
Seeing new Linux patches for benefiting Sega Dreamcast devices wasn't on my bingo card for 2026
Yankees news: Luis Gil’s 2026 Yankee debut set for Friday
Luis Gil will start Friday; Ben Rice continues to shine; Cam Schlittler looks great; CC Sabathia took the subway
Nell Nolan: Cowan deb, Ellott deb, Benzman deb brunch
At individual parties, three debutantes of the season were honored at special locations, two historic and one, a charming home. Today, another celebration occurs, Easter, when families will visit homes
Nearly launched LG Rollable smartphone reveals its innovative internals in teardown video
Even Samsung’s 2026 foldables pale in comparison. If LG had not decided to exit the smartphone business, we could have seen a first rollable smartphone as early as 2021, one that was already more innovative five years ago than anything the foldable phone segment has produced recently, as a teardown shows.
Buried Roman sanctuary discovered beneath Frankfurt hints at shocking rituals
A hidden Roman sanctuary discovered beneath Frankfurt is offering rare clues about ancient rituals, including possible human sacrifice. With major funding secured, scientists are now racing to uncover how this mysterious, multi-god cult site operated.
Scientists trap light in a layer 1,000x thinner than hair
Researchers have created a nanoscale structure that traps infrared light in a layer just 40 nanometers thick—over 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. By using a unique material with exceptional light-bending properties, they can confine and intensify light far beyond previous limits. This setup also dramatically boosts light conversion effects, turning infrared into visible blue light. The advance could pave the way for smaller, faster photonic technologies.
Ben Shelton suffers another early exit at ATP Houston 250
Ben Shelton suffered another upset loss in Houston, falling as the top seed in the quarter-finals. He's still alive in doubles action, however.
Rewards before awards: The benefits of science competitions
Orlando Science Center inspires students from kindergarten to 12th grade to pursue STEM careers with a variety of science competitions. Young people grow stronger in critical thinking, problem-solving, public speaking, organization and time management skills, among others, when they participate. OSC science competitions help students develop these essential life skills that allow them to be
Oregon gave millions in erroneous benefits for state health plan, audit says
A free Oregon health care program for adults who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid could have improperly given out $15 million in payments related to benefits for recipients, according to a recent audit of state-managed federal programs.
🎥 Ben White's nightmare continues with shocking FA Cup mistake
It's not easy being Ben White at the moment.The Arsenal defender found himself booed by England supporters on his long-awaited international return, and things have not gotten much better at club leve...
Canada's Artemis II astronaut gives thumbs-up to 'Project Hail Mary' starring Canadian Ryan Gosling
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Chadd Charland challenges Dean Black in HD 15
An entrenched incumbent draws a challenger.
Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Draft Preview
Despite having undeniable star power, the 2025 season was the worst for the Cincinnati Bengals since Joe Burrow‘s rookie season in 2020. From August to December, Cincinnati fans had to put up with one of the worst defenses in the league, a still-struggling offensive line and questionable play calling. Bengals Draft Picks: Thankfully, the Bengals […] The post Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Draft Preview appeared first on The Lead.
Expecting a baby? Get 24/7 virtual health support for you and your family - Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
BLET members covered under the National Health & Welfare Plan can take advantage of several benefits for maternity and newborn care. Expecting a baby? T ...
Medicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims
Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds several clinics making potentially unlawful claims about benefits of unregulated therapies
1000 new African genomes added to global science
Wits-led AGenDA project sequenced 1,000+ African genomes, uncovering vast genetic diversity and novel variants. This helps correct Eurocentric bias in global datasets, improving disease prediction, treatment design, and ensuring African populations benefit from genomic medicine.
These Republicans running for Oregon governor are raising the most money, readying TV ad blitz
The eventual winner can expect an uphill battle in the fall against incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek.
Does athletic tape really work? Here's what experts say
Kinesiology tape, worn by athletes like Serena Williams, Olympians and the rest of us, may have more of a placebo effect than a performance benefit, new research finds.
AWS Engineer Reports PostgreSQL Performance Halved By Linux 7.0, But A Fix May Not Be Easy
An Amazon/AWS engineer raised the alarms on Friday over the current Linux 7.0 development kernel leading to the throughput for the PostgreSQL database server being around half that of prior kernel versions
2026 NFL Mock Draft: Cincinnati Bengals boost offensive line
With the 10th overall pick in the 2026 Bleeding Green Nation community mock draft, Cincinnati Bengals GM chuckelberryfinn selects ...
Oregon gave millions in erroneous benefits for state health plan, audit says
By Shaanth Nanguneri, Oregon Capital Chronicle SALEM, Ore. -- A free Oregon health care program for adults who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid could have improperly given out $15 million in payments related to benefits for recipients, according to a recent audit of state-managed federal programs. The “questioned” funds surfaced in an 124-page
ChatGPT's New Internet Browser Can Run 80% of a 1-Person Business — Here's How Entrepreneurs Are Using It
You're not prompting anymore. You're delegating.
Galaxy S26 FE Is Up To 33% Slower Than Exynos 2600-Powered Galaxy S26 In Benchmark Leak, Highlighting Samsung’s Lack Of Interest In This Lineup
Samsung is once again treating its non-flagship smartphones with poor specifications, with the Galaxy S26 FE shipping with an inferior SoC
Company backed by Trump sons looks to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran
The sales drive by Florida-based Powerus – which announced a deal last month to bring aboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began.
The Happy Accident: How Benetta MacAuley Found Her Joy in Materials Science and Music
Benetta MacAuley didn't know materials science was a major when she applied to UC Davis. Now the senior investigates sustainable cement alternatives and leads the viola section of the Video Game Orchestra, proving that the best paths are often unplanned.
Lenovo Legion Go 2 suddenly costs $650 more as RAMageddon lays waste to gaming hardware
$2,000 for a Z2 Extreme.
Former Turnstile guitarist is accused of hitting an ex-bandmate's dad with his car
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Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
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