The firm released its SmolLM language model earlier this year. "We are not the only one," said Wolf, adding that, "Almost every open source company has been releasing smaller and smaller models this year."

He explained that, "For a lot of very interesting tasks that we need that we could automate with AI, we don't need to have a model that can solve the Riemann conjecture or general relativity." Instead, simple tasks such as data wrangling, image processing and speech can be performed using small language models, with corresponding benefits in speed.