RedNote is the latest Chinese player releasing open-source AI model
What's the story
China's popular social media platform, RedNote, has launched an open-source large language model (LLM). The move comes as a part of a growing trend among Chinese tech companies to make their artificial intelligence (AI) models publicly available. This approach is different from many US tech giants like OpenAI and Google, who have kept their most advanced models under wraps. However, some firms like Meta have also released open-source models.
Model details
Dots.llm1 can be downloaded from Hugging Face
RedNote's open-source model, dubbed dots.llm1, can be downloaded from the developer platform Hugging Face. A technical paper explaining the company's AI model was uploaded on Friday. According to this paper, in coding tasks, dots.llm1 performs similarly to Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 series but lags behind more advanced models such as DeepSeek's V3.
Platform evolution
Xiaohongshu's rise and AI ambitions
RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, is a platform similar to Instagram where users can post photos, videos, text posts, and live streams. The platform drew international attention earlier this year when some US users flocked to it amid fears of a possible TikTok ban. The company has been investing in LLM development since 2023, shortly after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022.
AI efforts
Other notable releases
RedNote has stepped up its AI efforts in recent months by launching Diandian, an AI-powered search app that helps users find content on Xiaohongshu's main platform. Other companies going the open-source route include Alibaba, which launched Qwen 3, an upgraded version of its model, in April. Earlier this year, start-up DeepSeek shook the global AI industry by releasing its low-cost R1 model as open-source software. R1 achieved strong performance at a fraction of the cost of Western competitors.