Meta releases free Muse Spark Open model

What happened: Meta released Muse Spark Open, a free, downloadable model built for coding and long tasks. Apple tuned its software so the model runs on its desktops, and the two companies ran it on two linked Mac Studios, where it fixed bugs in a real app by itself. Meta's top model, Muse Wonder, stays closed. Engadget puts a working Mac setup at roughly $38,000, and Chinese free models still beat it at some coding.
The claim: Meta calls it the most capable American AI model anyone can download for free.
Austin's take: Austin is excited to see strong American open models, after a year when Chinese open models had no real US rivals. He notes that most people don't need the $38,000 hardware, because open weights can run on a rented private server or in the cloud for much less. He credits Alexandr Wang and Mark Zuckerberg's team.
Why it matters: A capable open model you can run yourself means your data never has to leave your building, which matters for privacy-sensitive work.
What to do: If data control matters to you, look at running it on a cloud server before buying hardware. Compare it against Chinese open models for your coding tasks.

The Loop