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Olivia Munn Says 'Obnoxious' Male Co-Star Wouldn't Let Her 'Save' Him On-Screen
The “Your Friends & Neighbors” star said the actor quickly grew “combative with the director” over the scene.
Appeals court decides against Anthropic in latest round of its AI battle with the Trump administration
The ruling followed another judge's order that forced President Donald Trump's administration to remove a label tainting the company as a national security risk.
The IX Sports Podcast: Aerin Frankel vs Ann-Reneé Desbiens
Host Maya Smith and guest Geremy discuss the record-breaking attendance at MSG and the battle for Goaltender of the Year.
How national political analysts see the Wisconsin Supreme Court race
J. Miles Coleman from Sabato's Crystal Ball said far different results in Washington and Ozaukee counties could mark the end of the "WOW" grouping.
New iPhone Ultra renders, battery capacity, and thickness details leaked
There's more than one reason to get excited for the iPhone Ultra.
Irish Club fundraiser, Night of Ideas and more events in the Baton Rouge area this week
Check out all the things to do in Baton Rouge from April 10-16.
Supporters object to trans sports referendum ballot language
The Secretary of State released draft language this week of how the initiative, which seeks to limit participation in school sports and use of spaces like bathrooms to sex assigned at birth, would appear on the November ballot.
How Teach for America Helped Set Up James Talarico’s Political Rise
The prestigious education group is more than a shiny resume item. For the Democratic Senate candidate, it was an incubator for his rapid political ascent.
Michael Patrick of 'Game of Thrones' Dies at 35. Motor Neuron Disease, Explained
The actor passed away on April 7 following a three-year-long health battle.
AROUND BATON ROUGE
The following is a calendar of community events in the Baton Rouge area from Friday through Thursday, April 16.
I tested three Windows laptops in the MacBook Neo’s price range — there’s no contest
It’s a bloodbath.
Banijay Entertainment Enters the Battleground with New Fitness-Fight Competition Format
Banijay Entertainment today announces it has acquired the global rights to Battleground, a high-octane, youth-skewing fitness competition format originating from Mumbai-based Rusk Media.
Jefferson Parish set to build food business 'incubator' in Westwego
The New Orleans Food and Beverage Incubator will be the only wholesale food incubator of its kind in the Greater New Orleans Area, designed to help food entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
Banijay Entertainment Acquires Global Rights to Indian Fitness Format ‘Battleground’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Banijay Entertainment has secured worldwide rights to “Battleground,” a fitness-driven competition format originated by Mumbai-based Rusk Media. The format fuses athletic competition, reality-style dr...
Advantage Liverpool? Reds battle Bayern in race for £35m attacker
Liverpool are among the clubs showing strong interest in signing Hoffenheim winger Bazoumana Toure during the summer transfer window.The Reds are expected to strengthen their attacking options after a...
Hawaiʻi weighs shorter probation, lighter punishment for drugs
The proposed changes come after criminal justice stakeholders from across the state took an extensive look at the state’s penal code in a effort to address concerns and outdated practices
Southwest Airlines limits passengers to 1 portable charger per person over fire concerns
Southwest Airlines rolls out stricter portable charger rules, limiting passengers to one device per person amid rising lithium battery fire concerns.
Lots of Social Science Won’t Replicate. Does That Mean It’s Bunk?
Scholars are debating the results of an effort to assess hundreds of papers’ credibility. Where some see failure and cause for urgent reform, others see reason for hope.
New Virginia economic laws: Gov. Spanberger signs legislation addressing cost of living, health care
Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed another batch of legislation into Virginia law, the most recent bills addressing cost of living and health care, according to a news release from her office.
'Tokenmaxxing' is the new Silicon Valley AI debate
Some engineers are "tokenmaxxing," or spending as many AI tokens as possible. But are leaderboards tracking token use the answer?
U.S. Forces Stand Ready to Resume Combat. The President May Not Be as Enthused.
President Trump knows that even if a cease-fire runs out with no final agreement on the issues dividing Washington and Tehran, the political risk of renewing hostilities is high.
Kirk Cousins declares the Raiders' uniforms the 'best jerseys in pro sports'
New Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins calls Las Vegas jerseys the "best in pro sports," though there may be an epic debate to be had about his declaration.
Ringling Bros. brings reimagined circus to Cleveland this fall
Ringling Bros. brings a revamped, high-energy circus to Cleveland in October, featuring stunts, acrobats, and interactive pre-show events.
RPS Verdict: In its best moments, Samson is like a goon-battering GTA 4 roleplay mod, but in its worst it's horribly broken
Liquid Swords' Samson, a GTA-ish driveabrawler about a debt-ridded criminal is out, here's our verdict.
Pentagon says US forces ready to resume combat operations if ordered
PAHO Director urges global action to combat rising dengue and other arboviral threats at One Health Forum in Lyon
Lyon, France, 8 April 2026 (PAHO) – The escalating surge of dengue and other arboviral diseases is a direct indicator of how environmental changes are reshaping global public health, underscored the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, during his remarks at the One Health Summit in Lyon, France.
No Man's Sky Xeno Arena Update Channels Pokémon, Lets You Raise, Train and Battle the Alien Creatures Found Across the Universe
No Man’s Sky’s latest update, Xeno Arena, is doing its best Pokémon impression by letting you raise, train and battle the alien creatures found across the universe. Here's everything you need to know.
Poulsbo’s Away With Words offers gifts for body and mind
Poulsbo's Away With Words is easier to get to than one might think and offers a unique blend of books and handmade bath and body products.
No Man's Sky goes full-on Pokémon in new creature-battling update - "This is an entire multiplayer game all of its own"
With No Man's Sky's tenth anniversary hurtling ever closer, the exploratory space sim is back with another update - and this time it's basically Pokémon.
Life Science Cares Boston Marks 10 Years of Impact, Calls Life Sciences Community to Lead the Next Decade of Change
BOSTON, April 08, 2026--Life Science Cares Boston marks 10 years, uniting the life sciences community to combat poverty through nonprofit funding and employee engagement.
Battles over business regulation resume in California's Capitol with new legislation
Lawmakers discussed bills that allow lawsuits against business monopolies and businesses that affect climate change.
Trump’s Iran brinkmanship reaches truce, escalates backlash at home
The president’s ultimatum drew condemnation across the political spectrum and intensified open debate about his credibility, morality and sanity.
Baton Rouge General's Health Tip of the Week: What to know about new cholesterol guidelines
Sponsored by Baton Rouge General Heart health is getting a head start—and the new guidelines say your 30s are the time to begin. Updated recommendations call for annual cholesterol screenings starting at age 30, lower LDL (“bad” cholesterol) targets (under 100, or 70 if you’re higher risk), and additional tests like lipoprotein(a) at least once. […]
J.T. Realmuto hurt — and what we learned in Phillies' sloppy loss
J.T. Realmuto exited early, Cristopher Sánchez battled through defensive miscues and the Phillies’ struggles vs. lefties continued in San Francisco.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Library: Where entrepreneurs go to grow
Sponsored by East Baton Rouge Parish Library When it comes to powering local entrepreneurship, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library and The Alliance are building one of the region’s most dynamic engines for small business growth. Their collaborative Small Business Engine Series has evolved into a practical, boots-on-the-ground resource for aspiring and established business owners alike, blending […]
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.
Liberals tighten grip on battleground state Supreme Court in low-key but high-stakes election
Chris Taylor wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race, expanding the liberal majority to 5-2 in a key battleground state ahead of November's elections.
View: AI is testing the oldest debate in business: Who’s the customer?
The oldest question in business — who is your customer — turns out to be the one OpenAI still can’t answer.
Board Moves to Combat Home Health and Hospice Fraud in Los Angeles - Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath
Supervisor Horvath advanced a motion to strengthen oversight and enforcement against fraud in the home health and hospice industry.
Ohio State competition prompts students to put business skills to work
Students from across the country gathered at The Ohio State University’s Columbus campus recently to participate in the annual Fisher Invitational Case Competition.The Fisher College of Business hosted the competition with Battelle, a Columbus-based nonprofit, private company that applies science and technology to solve challenges in the envir...
UT Health San Antonio researchers report breakthrough findings significantly reducing symptoms for combat PTSD victims - UT Health San Antonio
UT Health San Antonio researchers report breakthrough findings significantly reducing symptoms for combat PTSD victims
Pokémon Champions: Launch Time, Subscription, And More
The battle simulator is coming to Switch, and here’s when you can start playing
UT Health San Antonio researchers report breakthrough findings significantly reducing symptoms for combat PTSD victims - UT Health San Antonio
Adding navigated TMS to psychotherapy can ‘greatly improve’ quality of life Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu SAN ANTONIO, April 7, 2026 – An advanced version of a procedure using magnetic fields to stimulate brain nerve cells in treating depression was significantly effective for 85% of active military and veterans suffering from combat post-traumatic stress […]
Chicago Bears HOFer Steve McMichael diagnosed with CTE year after death
McMichael died in April 2025 following a 5-year battle with ALS.
Elephant Rumblings: The Caray Call
It’ll exist in my mind as simply iconic. Though after an intense scouring of the internet, I’ve come to realize that Chris Caray’s walk-off home run call from Sunday has garnered mixed reviews. Personally, I loved the in-the-moment nature of him screaming along with the ball as it slammed off of Brent Rooker’s bat and […]
I’ve Killed The Entire Map In ‘Crimson Desert,’ And I Want A Patch To Do It Again
Crimson Desert has an ending, as single player games tend to do, but your combat skills reach a point where you want to keep fighting past that.
Adobe launches Acrobat Spaces, a free AI-powered study tool for students
Adobe Acrobat Spaces is a free tool for students to use AI and create different kind of study material from documents
11 years later, Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity gets a turn-based combat mode to make it a little bit more like Baldur's Gate 3
Obsidian Entertainment has just updated fantasy RPG Pillars of Eternity with optional turn-based combat more than 11 years after launch.
‘Charlie’s Angels’ Star Reveals Secret Health Battle
She’s not the first from the show to have suffered.
‘No Labels’ Arizona Wants to Rebrand as the Independent Party
Both the Democratic and Republican parties in Arizona have been locked in a legal battle with a chapter of the group “No Labels” as it tries to rechristen itself.
Peyton Morgan, Malik Esquerra rising in Texas Tech football battle
Texas Tech football will have a first-time starting safety this fall. Oliver Miles' recent ankle injury put him behind Peyton Morgan, Malik Esquerra.
A good point but not enough for Pompey's survival
BBC Radio Solent's Andrew Moon on the 2-2 draw between Portsmouth and Oxford and the impact on the Championship relegation battle.
'An incredible league' - inside WSL 2 promotion race
With less than a month of the season remaining, BBC Sport assesses the key contenders battling for promotion from Women's Super League 2.
Democrats hope to increase liberal control of battleground Wisconsin's Supreme Court
Democrats are hoping to increase liberal control of the state Supreme Court in battleground Wisconsin in an election that has focused largely on abortion rights as cases affecting congressional redistricting, union rights and other hot button issues also await
Vance makes time to visit Hungary to support Orbán amid Iran negotiations
The war with Iran is raging, gas prices continue to rise and spending battles persist on Capitol Hill. So why is the number two man in the White House flying to Budapest?
Will the Iran war reshape Keir Starmer’s political future?
Labour figures point to Gordon Brown’s response to financial crash as a template for embattled prime minister
New poll reveals Spanberger's popularity is plummeting amid backlash over gerrymandering
Gov. Abigail Spanberger battles record unpopularity in Virginia with 46% disapproval, the lowest rating for a governor since 1994, a new poll shows.
Lil Nas X gets mental health diversion in police battery case
Lil Nas X, who was arrested last August, reportedly will enter a two-year mental health diversion program in the latest step to potentially resolve a felony battery case.
Antonio White: SB 1296 isn’t about accountability — it silences Florida public workers
SB 1296 debate raises concerns over public worker rights
International maritime officers connect with science at W&M’s Batten School & VIMS
W&M's Batten School & VIMS recently hosted the U.S. Coast Guard’s International Maritime Officer’s Course.
Lil Nas X Granted Mental Health Diversion in LAPD Battery Case
Lil Nas X had will see his felony police battery charges dismissed if he completes a two-year mental health diversion program, a judge said Monday.
Trump Appears At White House Egg Roll—Combatting Health Rumors
Trump was spotted Sunday arriving back at the White House, the first time he’d been seen since Wednesday.
Diagnosis for 4.6.26: Checking the pulse of Florida health care news and policy
Caregivers power Florida economy amid legal battles and health care innovation
CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate on May 5
CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate next month, a potential inflection point in a crowded campaign that Democrats are concerned could provide an opening for Republicans.
CNN will televise California gubernatorial primary debate in May
Elex Michaelson and Kaitlan Collins will moderate the event to be held in Los Angeles and airing across CNN's cable channels and streaming platform.
Centene Latest Health Insurer To Shakeup Management Ranks
Centene is bolstering its management team by creating two new senior executive positions as health insurers battle higher costs and new policies at the federal level.
The Blogs: Politics at the Seder table
A Passover debate about Palestinian suffering overlooks a harder task: understanding what drives Jewish ultranationalists in the first place
Breaking a sweat isn’t easy: Mental health barriers to physical activity
Exercise has long been referenced as a way to clear the mind, take away stress or combat mental health disorders, according to postdoctoral scholar and research associate in the University of Wisconsin Wellbeing and Exercise Laboratory Madeleine Connolly. Practices such as yoga in India and tai chi in China have connected the mind and body through...
Billionaire candidate for California governor catching heat for past business interests, wealth
Hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, among the top Democrats running for governor who has spent more than $100 million of his money on his campaign, faces questions about how he made his wealth.
How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics
Inside the battle for the post-MAGA G.O.P.
Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 115
UFC Vegas 115 went down last night (Sat., April 4, 2026) inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Renato Moicano submit Chris Duncan in the second round in the headlining bout (see it again here). In the co-featured bout, Virna Jandiroba defeated Tabatha Ricci via unanimous decision, while Tommy McMillen had himself a […]
Neal Schon and bandmate Jonathan Cain battle lawsuits and politics as Journey's farewell tour rolls on
Journey bandmates Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain are feuding over politics, religion and lawsuits even as their farewell world tour moves forward.
Sony's battle against shovelware publishers persists as it purges another load of crap games from the PlayStation Store
Sony has once again delisted a number of games from its storefronts, including the catalogues of alleged shovelware pub…
Zohran Mamdani and the business exodus? New York's office real estate market is up under new mayor
Reports Apollo Global Management is planning a second HQ in the US South renewed debate over a business exodus under NYC Mayor Mamdani. Data doesn't support it.
I finally stopped letting my phone's default settings limit me, thanks to this little-known Android power utility
I can now see the bigger picture of why battery drain happens on the system level
Study of 1,700 languages reveals surprising hidden patterns
A massive new analysis of over 1,700 languages shows that some long-debated “universal” grammar rules are actually real. By using cutting-edge evolutionary methods, researchers found that languages tend to evolve in predictable ways rather than randomly. Key patterns—like word order and grammatical structure—keep reappearing across the globe. The results suggest shared human thinking and communication pressures shape how all languages develop.
Intel "Big Battlemage" BMG-G31 said to feature 27.7B transistors, 48% fewer than AMD Navi 48
Intel BMG-G31 with 27.7 billion transistors on 368 mm² die PC Games Hardware says Intel has now disclosed the missing physical specs for BMG-G31,
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Leaks: 5,000mAh Battery and 45W Charging Finally Confirmed?
Massive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 leaks reveal a game-changing "Wide" variant with a 3:4 aspect ratio, 5,000mAh battery, and 45W charging
Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey makes grand return to CT visiting two arenas with brand-new acts
The legendary circus continues its 21st century makeover featuring 65 performers, from aerialists to acrobats to trick cyclists to people who dive through hoops.
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
Pokémon GO Events This Week: 6-12 April 2026
Pokémon GO’s April 6 to April 12 week has us firmly into the season of Memories in Motion! Tinkatink stars in Community Day, and A Shockingly Good Time draws to a close. Plus the weekly rotating Raid Hours, Dynamax Battles and Mega Raids. ⭐Highlights Raid Boss Change (April 8): Kyogre and Mega Aerodactyl return to the […]
Politics Unplugged (Full Episode) April 5, 2026
This week on Politics Unplugged, State Rep. Alexander Kolodin explains why he is running for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. Then, consultants Marcus Dell’Artino and Adam Kinsey break down the latest Presidential approval polls and the candidates for governor debating whether to eat a taco on camera.
Georgia 4-star OT commit Kelsey Adams returns to LSU
Georgia picked up a big early commitment from Atlanta Langston Hughes four-star offensive tackle Kelsey Adams back in October. He remains committed to the Bulldogs, but he’s also not closing the door on his recruitment. Adams is out visiting other programs this spring and he’s in Baton Rouge to give LSU another look this weekend. […]
Open Graphics Card Powers Cyberpunk “Laptop”
For once, we can avoid debating in the comments what constitutes a “cyberdeck”, because [LCLDIY] does not refer to his cyberpunk masterpiece as such — he calls it a laptop. Consid…
Briggs: Ranking the area's top 10 high school sports programs. Let the debate begin
How many extraordinary high school sports programs are there in our area? Honestly, I’m not sure I fully appreciated the answer until just the other day. ...
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.
Scientists built a quantum battery that breaks the rules of charging
Scientists have taken a major step toward futuristic energy tech by building a working prototype of a quantum battery—one that can charge, store, and release energy using the strange rules of quantum physics instead of chemistry. This tiny, laser-powered device hints at a future where energy storage is not only faster but actually improves as systems get larger, flipping the rules of conventional batteries.
Congress gave money for global HIV work. The Trump administration isn't spending it
U.S. work combatting HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives globally. Under the Trump administration, funding has been slow in coming and unpredictable, wreaking havoc on people trying to do the work.
Charlie Day shares awkward moment disrobing for Jennifer Aniston: 'Never felt less attractive'
The actor recalled his first day on set of the 2011 comedy 'Horrible Bosses,' also starring Aniston, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis.
NAVA Launches Latin Association of Voice Actors, Combatting AI Fraud in Spanish-Language Entertainment
The National Association of Voice Actors has launched the Latin Association of Voice Actors, addressing performers' unique challenges.
Meta CTO's advice to college students: 'constantly be building.'
Andrew Bosworth, the CTO of Meta, gave a college student some advice for breaking into Silicon Valley. He also waded into a recent internet debate.
Georgia lawmakers fail to settle voting machines conflict before end of annual session
The Georgia General Assembly ended its annual session early Friday without a plan for new equipment to overhaul the state's voting system by a July deadline, plunging into doubt the future of elections in the political battleground.
We the People: Truman Library scores with new sports exhibit
The highlights include Lamar Hunt’s ticket to the first game at Arrowhead Stadium, a football signed by Len Dawson and a baseball bat gifted to President Ronald Reagan after the Royals won the 1985 World Series.
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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