Meta's latest model is as open as Zuckerberg's private school

Muse Spark: closed, shiny, and selective

Meta has unveiled Muse Spark, a new AI model from its Superintelligence team — but you won’t be downloading the weights. Access is limited to Meta’s AI portal or to API users on an invite list. It has been reported that the rollout is part product demo, part gatekeeping exercise; the company frames Muse Spark as "the first step on our scaling ladder" after an internal overhaul. Cue the cognitive dissonance: a CEO who once extolled open source AI is now shipping a locked-down, proprietary system. Ouch.

From Llama evangelism to guarded launch

Only a couple of years ago Mark Zuckerberg published a manifesto celebrating open source as the best path forward. Then Meta launched Llama APIs and began monetising access. Industry peers do this too — Google ships smaller open weights from its big proprietary models, OpenAI has dabbled in gpt-oss — so dual-tracking isn’t unique. It has been reported that Meta abandoned development of its largest Llama variant, codenamed Behemoth, and allegedly paid top dollar to recruit senior AI engineers, including Alexandr Wang, to reboot efforts. The result: a ground-up model that’s sealed to outsiders.

Benchmarks, investors and a PR test

Meta claims Muse Spark matches or bests top models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, but those numbers come from the company and have not been independently verified. So: is Muse Spark genuinely a leap forward, or a polished talking point to calm jittery shareholders as Meta pours money into AI? If Zuckerberg still believes that open source fuels ecosystems — Linux was his go-to analogy — why keep the new crown jewel under lock and key? The emotional thrust here is simple: promises meet pressure. Expect more dust-ups as Meta juggles openness, control and the investor treadmill.

Sources: The Register