Here's a really important reason to care about open source models: prompt engineering is fiddly enough without the risk of your model provider "upgrading" the model you are using in a way that breaks your existing prompts.
OpenAI already upset a lot of (admittedly non-paying academic) users when they shut off access to the old Ada code model with only a few week's notice.
OpenAI already upset a lot of (admittedly non-paying academic) users when they shut off access to the old Ada code model with only a few week's notice.