{"slug": "the-blank-slate-ai-strategy", "title": "The Blank Slate AI Strategy", "summary": "Thinking Machines Lab released Inkling, a 975-billion-parameter open-source AI model trained from scratch on 45 trillion tokens, as a general-purpose foundation for customization. The company monetizes the model through its Tinker fine-tuning platform, charging for customization while keeping the weights free, mirroring Slate Auto's strategy of selling a bare-bones electric pickup and profiting from accessories.", "body_md": "What does a bare-bones pickup truck have in common with a state-of-the-art AI lab?\n\nBoth share a disruptive idea.\n\nIn June, Slate Auto revealed the Blank Slate : a $24,950 electric pickup with hand-crank windows, no stereo, no speakers, no touchscreen, & no paint. 1 A blank canvas inviting inspired customization.\n\nA month later, Thinking Machines Lab released a parallel in AI, Inkling : a 975B-parameter model, trained from scratch on 45 trillion tokens, entirely open source. 2 If models could be colors, this one would be the gray.\n\nThe company’s spider chart shows it’s a generalist model, good in many domains, a base ready to be customized.\n\nThinking Machines isn’t giving the model away out of altruism. Inkling launched on Tinker, the company’s fine-tuning platform : the weights are free, but the customization charges rent.\n\nSelling customization is one way to commercialize open-source AI, just as accessories monetize a Slate.\n\nShip a general-purpose base, & let the customer make it their own.\n\nModels like Inkling are the pickup truck of American AI : general-purpose, rugged, customizable, & the foundation on which US open source AI will be built.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy", "canonical_source": "https://www.tomtunguz.com/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy/", "published_at": "2026-07-16 00:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-16 19:41:29.045150+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-products", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Thinking Machines Lab", "Inkling", "Tinker", "Slate Auto", "Blank Slate"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-blank-slate-ai-strategy.jsonld"}}