Apertus AI: 4M Downloads, 70+ Deployments in 1 Year

Switzerland's fully open AI model, Apertus, has seen over four million downloads one year after its launch. This figure is considered by its community lead, Oleg Lavrovsky, to represent global interest in open-source AI. Here's the thing: while downloads are high, real-world usage is also growing. There are at least 70 external deployments and over one hundred derivative versions of Apertus. For example, Singapore's SEA-LION project adapted Apertus for Southeast Asian languages. Apertus was initially criticized as "unusable." However, version 1.5, released in July, brought improvements like image understanding. The team plans for Apertus 2.0 in 2027. Lavrovsky emphasizes that Apertus is a foundational model, not a finished commercial product like ChatGPT. It's meant for adaptation by companies and researchers. This matters because it highlights the difference between a foundational open-source AI and a commercial product.