Models, Open Weights and the Changing Frontier

Optional Further Study

Optional reading that distinguishes assistants from models and explores closed, open-weight and specialist systems.

Estimated time: 15 minutes. Last reviewed: 11 August 2026.

What you need to know

This page stands alone. No previous AI knowledge is required. You need access to an AI assistant only for the activity.

Learning outcome: By the end, you will be able to distinguish a product interface from the model or models behind it.

An assistant is a service; a model is an engine it may use.

Open-weight models permit broader inspection or local use, but “open” has several meanings.

This field changes quickly, so product examples must be dated.

Choose one assistant and find out which model it says it is using. Record the date and source of that information.

You can explain why the assistant name and model name are not interchangeable.

Confident with AI was created by Charli-Jo Tyrer in association with the Technology Association of Visually Impaired People (TAVIP).

Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.