Google is taking another swing at the smart glasses market, determined to leave the missteps of Google Glass in the past. On Dec. 12, the company unveiled Android XR, a new, cutting-edge operating system for headsets and smart glasses. With the competition heating up from the Meta Quest series and Apple Vision Pro leading the market, Google is banking on its Gemini generative AI to set its offering apart. Among the first devices slated to leverage Android XR is a pair of Samsung glasses, codenamed Project Moohan, expected to hit store shelves in 2025. The tech giant says the future headsets and smart glasses will “transform how you watch, work, and explore.” While Google has yet to announce a timeline for additional hardware or software built on Android XR, the operating system is already available in preview for developers and select partners. What makes Android XR different? Android XR glasses can provide hands-free navigation. Image: Google Combining Android XR, Google Gemini, and the glasses hardware means the devices can: Answer natural-language questions about your surroundings using Gemini. Search the internet or create an AI-guided to-do list with natural language. Play YouTube and Google TV. Display Google Photos in a virtual reality gallery. Use Circle to Search to get more information about an object in the real world or an item online. Google intends for Android XR to power various types of smart glasses. “We want there to be lots of choices of stylish, comfortable glasses you’ll love to wear every day and that work seamlessly with your other Android devices,” Shahram Izadi, Google’s VP and general manager of Extended Reality, wrote in a blog post. The tech giant plans to start privately testing Android XR on new hardware soon. Expect new devices from Google’s Qualcomm partners, particularly Sony, Lynx, and XREAL. SEE: Google’s newest AI model, Gemini 2.0 Flash, is an incremental move toward ‘agentic’ AI. More Google news & tips Developers can try the Android XR software development kit now Developers can experiment with the Android XR software development kit today by visiting developer.android.com/develop/xr. Google is accepting applications for an Android XR Developer Bootcamp, which will provide early access to hardware in exchange for collaboration with the internal XR team. Android XR is compatible with ARCore, Android Studio, Jetpack Compose, Unity, and OpenXR. Since Android XR includes the Android Play Store, developers with apps already in the Play Store can automatically make those apps available on extended reality devices. To translate conventional apps to extended reality, Android recommends using its automatic tools for spatializing Material Design (M3) components and Compose for adaptive layouts. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Slack will deeply integrate Salesforce’s Agentforce AI agents into its workplace collaboration platform, emphasizing contextual intelligence as the key differentiator in the increasingly crowded AI agent market. “There’s so much of your organization’s knowledge context [there]…Slack’s channels typically reflect your organization’s structure, but also your priorities for that given moment,” said Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “That is just such rich context for agents to be able to answer questions and reason through whether or not they need to be able to take action.” Why context matters for enterprise AI The integration, part of Salesforce’s Agentforce 2.0 launch scheduled for tomorrow, December 17, aims to make AI agents more effective by giving them access to the vast troves of conversational and organizational data that flow through Slack’s channels daily. Seaman outlined three critical capabilities that define these next-generation AI agents: comprehensive contextual knowledge, reasoning ability, and action-taking power. What sets Slack’s implementation apart is its unique position as what Seaman calls a “searchable log of all communication and knowledge” — effectively making it the central nervous system of modern enterprises. Inside Slack’s new AI agent library The platform will introduce a library of customizable AI agents that can perform various tasks, from onboarding new employees to managing complex cross-functional projects. “You’ll see the library of agents in Slack. And it’s pretty magical to see humans and agents together, and to think of this world where humans continue to work with humans, but agents are there as part of the team,” Seaman explained. A key focus is user trust, and another is data governance. Seaman emphasized that all agents will operate with “user context,” meaning they can only access information that the user has permission to see. “Our goal ultimately is to honor user context for every system that an agent and a person [have] interacted with,” he said. The platform includes robust safeguards through what Salesforce calls a “trust layer,” which handles sensitive information appropriately and ensures compliance with business rules. Users can test agents in real time and observe their decision-making processes through a transparent builder interface. How AI agents could transform enterprise software For enterprises struggling with fragmented software stacks, this integration could signal a shift in how organizations approach their technology infrastructure. While Seaman avoided specific predictions about which tools might become obsolete, he suggested that many manual processes currently “spaghetti-ed across numerous systems” could be streamlined through these contextually-aware agents. One concrete example Seaman highlighted was employee onboarding: “Taking you from new hire to productive, is something that the company cares about, and it’s also, from an end-user perspective, it’s kind of a lonely, scary experience in your first several months as you’re trying to find your way.” The race for enterprise AI dominance The integration represents a strategic move by both Slack and Salesforce to position themselves at the forefront of the enterprise AI revolution. While companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have launched their own AI agents, Slack’s deep integration with enterprise workflows and access to organizational context could provide a significant competitive advantage. The development comes at a crucial time as organizations grapple with how to effectively implement AI tools while maintaining security and trust. With this launch, Slack and Salesforce are betting that contextually-aware AI agents, deeply integrated into existing workflows, will prove more valuable than standalone AI solutions. The question remains whether enterprises will embrace this vision of AI agents as team members, but with Slack’s widespread adoption in modern workplaces, the platform is well-positioned to drive this transformation. As Seaman notes, “We’re pretty lucky, frankly, that we’re in this moment, and we have a lot of the primitives that are required to make this possible.” source

A rate center is a particular geographic area that’s crucial for businesses relying on phone services, whether they’re using traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or making calls over the internet with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). These centers outline the rules for local calling, billing, and assigning phone numbers. Essentially, they determine whether a call is local or long-distance based on its origin. By familiarizing yourself with rate centers, you may be able to choose your phone numbers more thoughtfully. Essentially, you can use this knowledge to ensure your business appears local and accessible to customers, which means they’re more likely to want to work with you. It also prevents your customers from facing long-distance charges, which is especially important if your business involves regular phone interactions. By strategically aligning your communication channels with customer needs, you can simultaneously make your customers happier while reducing costs on both sides of the phone call. Understanding rate centers Rate centers are particular areas that help phone companies figure out how to organize and charge for calls. Each rate center is like a neighborhood for phone calls. If a call is made within this neighborhood, it’s usually seen as a local call and has its own set of charges. Here are the key terms you need to know: Local Exchange Carrier (LEC): These are the phone companies that handle your local calls. They take care of the phone lines in a certain area. Local Access and Transport Area (LATA): This is an area defined by the government. It decides where phone companies can give their services. Rate centers are often named after the places they serve, like a city or a town, making them easy to identify. They also have specific physical locations, pinpointed by coordinates, which are essential for accurately billing calls. The combination of the area code (NPA) and prefix (NXX) further identifies a rate center’s location and the phone numbers associated with it. The area code is the three digits you dial before a phone number, and the prefix is the next three digits. Together, they help pinpoint the rate center’s location and the phone numbers that belong to it. Let’s use Seattle as a real-world example to better understand how rate centers work. Seattle is a large city with a lot of different neighborhoods. Think of each rate center as a separate neighborhood in Seattle. Every neighborhood (or rate center) has its own rules for how phone calls are made and charged. Some calls might be local within the same rate center, but they could be long-distance if they cross into another rate center. This is essential for businesses that rely heavily on phone services. It helps them understand where they might get charged more for calls and how to choose their phone numbers wisely. Business implications of rate centers For businesses using traditional phones, the rate centers play a large role. For those using business phone services that run over the internet (i.e. VoIP), rate centers play less of a role, but they are still relevant. I’ll cover implications for traditional phones first, and then we’ll look at the implications for VoIP phone systems. Choosing phone numbers strategically Selecting phone numbers in specific rate centers can reduce call costs or enhance customer engagement. For local businesses like retail stores or restaurants, having a number in the same rate center as most customers means they can reach you at local rates, appealing to those who prefer local interactions. Conversely, online businesses, which typically engage customers nationally or globally, may prioritize different aspects of telecom services. Understanding advantages of toll-free numbers Toll-free numbers offer a unique advantage as they aren’t limited by geographic rate centers. This makes them ideal for businesses looking to attract a broader customer base, such as online education platforms, telehealth services, or any business aiming for national reach. Customers can call these numbers without long-distance charges, regardless of their location relative to your business. SEE: Learn more about toll-free vs. local numbers. Navigating number porting with rate centers When you move your business phone number from one provider to another (a process called number porting), rate centers play a crucial role. This process can vary significantly between PSTN and VoIP solutions. If you’re porting an existing phone number to VoIP, the new provider might not support the rate center of your old number. This could prevent you from keeping your existing number. Make sure you check with the new provider to see if they support your current rate center before making a switch. Reviewing number allocation regularly The telecom landscape is constantly changing. New rate centers can emerge, and providers may update their services. It’s a good idea to review your phone number allocation regularly. This ensures that your numbers are still serving your business needs effectively, whether that’s saving on call costs or maintaining local customer engagement. VoIP and rate centers While a landline depends on rate centers for determining call routing, billing, and assigning phone numbers based on physical geography, VoIP operates with far more flexibility. VoIP providers use rate centers to assign numbers with specific area codes and prefixes. This allows businesses to choose numbers tied to particular geographic locations, even if the business itself is not physically present there. This feature is especially useful for establishing a local presence virtually. For customers, the geographic association of a number — defined by the rate center — can impact their willingness to call or view the business as local and accessible. A VoIP number tied to a local rate center can enhance customer trust and accessibility. Importantly, VoIP bypasses the traditional billing structures tied to rate centers. Calls are routed via the internet rather than physical exchanges, eliminating long-distance charges and offering greater cost efficiency for businesses and their customers. SEE: Learn more about the differences between a landline and VoIP. How to look up a rate center Finding the rate center for a particular geographic area is relatively straightforward, thanks to

While there are many options to leverage the cloud, lofty strategies can run the risk of getting ahead of what enterprises need — or is feasible. Even with scalable options that can “rubber band” to suit demand, is there a disconnect between what enterprises aim for with their cloud plans and what can be delivered? Over the years, there have been protestations about the ubiquitous cloud, with cloud-first billed as the strategy of the future. But is that where enterprises should aim their cloud efforts? Diving into those and other questions, this episode of DOS Won’t Hunt gathered Marcus Merrell, principal tech Advisor at Sauce Labs; Anuj Kapur, CEO of CloudBees; Bina Khimani, chief product officer and chief revenue officer with Kinesis Network; and Richard Munro, business value lead for the VMware Cloud Foundation Division. They spoke to questions that included whether enterprises are now able to tailor cloud resources to fit their actual operational needs, if cloud costs have become more manageable, how cloud usage has scaled in recent years, and whether or not more organizations are going cloud-first. Listen to the full podcast here. source

By Bonnie Eslinger ( December 13, 2024, 9:19 PM EST) — An Illinois federal judge transferred an antitrust case against Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham and others to California, as a similar action is already proceeding in the Golden State, also alleging the companies conspired to inflate extended stay hotel room rates via an algorithm…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

If you’re experiencing choppy phone or video calls, pixelated conferencing, or disjointed VoIP audio connections, your network jitter may very well be above acceptable levels. Jitter refers to the variation in the arrival times of data packets across a network. There is always going to be a little variation, but if the jitter rate is too high, you will experience disruptions like choppy audio, lagging video, or dropped calls. Network jitter is measured in milliseconds (ms). Here’s a fairly standard breakdown of jitter rate: Good jitter: Less than 30 ms – Typically causes no noticeable disruptions in real-time communication. Moderate jitter: Between 30-50 ms – May result in slight delays or distortion but is generally manageable. High jitter: Above 50 ms – Can cause severe issues like robotic voices, video freezes, and frequent disconnections. High jitter is going to negatively impact any real-time communication over the network. Voice calls will be terrible quality and video conferencing will be even worse. The good news is that with the right troubleshooting approach, many network jitter issues can be reduced or eliminated in under 10 minutes flat. The best call center software and business phone services have built-in tools for addressing jitter and many other network issues. 1 RingCentral RingEx Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Hosted PBX, Managed PBX, Remote User Ability, and more 2 Talkroute Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Call Management/Monitoring, Call Routing, Mobile Capabilities, and more How to know if network jitter is the problem Although there are plenty of reasons why your network may not be working properly — like faulty routers, poor internet connection, and other network-specific issues — there are some telltale signs that point to jitter being the problem. Static sounds and dropped calls point to jitter If you’re experiencing disruptions like static and robotic sounds on your VoIP calls or video conferencing sessions that end abruptly, jitter could be the culprit. High jitter means that there is high variation in packet arrival times over your network, which disrupts the smooth delivery of audio and video. These inconsistencies can create choppy, delayed, or distorted streams. Static, robotic sounds, and dropped calls are often symptoms of jitter, but they can also be caused by other factors, such as mismatched VoIP codecs, insufficient bandwidth, or packet loss unrelated to jitter. SEE: Learn about other causes of dropped calls and how to fix them. Confirm jitter with a ping test To figure out if jitter is impacting your connection, a quick and easy diagnostic you can run is a network ping test. This test sends data packets to measure latency and jitter directly. Keep in mind that you don’t need any fancy software or advanced technical knowledge to test for jitter. There are plenty of excellent free speed test apps that can report on jitter, latency, and a whole lot more. Acceptable jitter should be under 30ms. How to fix network jitter for good If you’ve identified that your jitter is above acceptable levels, resolving it starts with understanding the underlying causes and taking targeted action. A common issue that causes jitter is the use of a wireless connection, which is more prone to interference. Switching to a wired Ethernet connection can significantly reduce jitter, providing a more stable and reliable network experience by removing environmental disruptions that affect wireless signals. It’s not always possible to switch to a wired connection, but it is one of the most reliable VoIP troubleshooting tactics out there for restoring clear calls. Outdated or underperforming network equipment is another frequent cause of jitter. Routers, firewalls, and network switches that can’t handle high-speed traffic may struggle to deliver consistent packet delivery, especially with real-time applications. Upgrading your hardware and ensuring it’s running the latest firmware can help improve performance and reduce jitter. Network congestion, where bandwidth is shared among too many devices or high-traffic applications, often leads to packet delays. To mitigate this, reducing non-essential traffic or increasing your available bandwidth can help smooth out the delivery of packets and decrease jitter. This can be particularly important for businesses or households with multiple devices using the network simultaneously. Another key factor is ensuring proper packet prioritization. Quality of Service (QoS) settings, essential data like VoIP or video streams can get delayed behind less critical traffic. Enabling QoS on your network equipment allows you to prioritize time-sensitive data, ensuring that important packets are delivered on time, without interruption. Finally, if jitter persists despite these fixes, it may indicate an issue with your network’s design. Chronic jitter can result from poorly architected networks with congestion points or inefficient traffic flow. If this is the problem, you have a bit more than a 10-minute fix ahead of you. In these cases, redesigning the network security architecture to allocate dedicated bandwidth for real-time traffic and optimizing network routes can be the solution. Ensuring your network is built to handle the demands of streaming and communication is critical for long-term stability. How to prevent network jitter If you care about your network’s safety, speed, and efficiency, then this section is for you. Here’s how you can prevent network jitter from plaguing your network. Stay on top of updates One of the easiest ways to avoid jitter issues cropping up is to keep the firmware and software for all your network-related devices fully up-to-date. Router, switch, firewall, and WiFi access point vendors regularly issue performance and stability patches — and for good reason. Installing recent releases will prevent out-of-date components from disrupting packet flows. SEE: Learn the basics of patch management and how to stay on top of updates. Choose quality VoIP providers It’s in your best interest to vet any potential VoIP, video conferencing, and streaming providers for call quality assurances and jitter mitigation techniques before signing up. Many of

When it comes to IT nightmare scenarios, few can match the possibility of having a key vendor partner suddenly close its doors. With little or no advance warning, IT leadership must scramble to find a suitable replacement and continue vital operations.  It’s critical to go on the offensive quickly, advises Troy Gibson, fractional CIO with business and technology consulting firm Centric Consulting’s CIO services unit. “Waiting to see what will happen is a recipe for disaster,” he says in an email interview. Remember that there will be many other customers in the same boat, so a rapid response is essential. “There are advantages to being at the table first to set the stage for what happens next.”  Warning Signs  Poor communication often signals a business in trouble, says Simon Fletcher, engineering manager at cybersecurity firm Twingate. “This is the most visible warning sign,” he notes via email. “If a vendor becomes unresponsive, or delays in communication start arising, this can be an early red flag.”  Another warning sign is a vendor experiencing frequent leadership changes. “A high turnover in staff, particularly in executive and leadership positions, can indicate internal instability,” Fletcher says. Product or service quality decline, or a sudden lack of regular updates, is yet another red flag. Additionally, staff layoffs and/or facility closures can be a sign of internal trouble.  Related:How CIOs Can Contribute to Corporate Strategy Taking Action  The first step to take once a vendor’s failure becomes apparent is to assess how important the vendor’s services are to your organization, Fletcher says. “This is critical to understand how dependent your organization is on the vendor and how the shutdown will immediately affect operations.”  Fletcher believes that a thorough assessment can be highly effective, since it allows the leaders at the affected organization to quickly understand the potential risks and operational disruptions caused by the vendor’s shutdown. “By prioritizing the most critical services, the IT leader can allocate resources effectively, focus on minimizing downtime, and maintain business continuity,” he explains. “It also provides a clear direction for further steps, such as engaging alternative vendors or activating any existing contingency plans.”  Identify and secure all critical data associated with the vendor, particularly if it resides in specialized SaaS applications, recommends Todd Thorsen, CISO at data backup service provider CrashPlan. “IT leaders should prioritize exporting and backing up all data from these applications to ensure no intellectual property or essential work is lost,” he says via email. “This includes identifying all endpoints, such as laptops or any other devices on which data might be stored and securing the content in a centralized backup environment.”  Related:Building a Global Team of Experts to Support Complex Enterprise Sales By focusing on data backup, organizations can protect their intellectual property and critical work, even when a vendor suddenly shuts down, Thorsen says. “This mitigates the risk of data loss and ensures that teams can continue with minimal disruption.”  Gibson suggests engaging the vendor to understand their actions and how they might be able to help you mitigate the situation. “They may have already established a transition plan,” he notes. “If this is a software solution, cloud-based or on-prem, negotiate to gain access to the code and build scripts.” If that’s not possible, seek support to set up the solution on your own cloud platform. Finally, review the current contract to understand what products and/or services were agreed upon. “If there’s an escrow account for the code, understand the steps needed to access it.”  Preemptive Protection  The best protection against sudden vendor failure is regularly backing up all critical stored data to independent, secure environments. “This means setting up backup systems that aren’t reliant on the vendor’s infrastructure and ensuring that all work and intellectual property are duplicated in a secure location,” Thorsen says. Maintaining a comprehensive inventory of all applications in use, and understanding what data is stored in which location is also crucial, he adds.  Related:Tech Company Layoffs: The COVID Tech Bubble Bursts As a key part of the IT risk management process, Gibson recommends that each vendor should be assessed on an annual basis to establish what would be the impact if the provider were to suddenly go under. Vendor size is inconsequential. Gibson reports that he’s seen several Fortune 500 companies coping with business-critical software solutions owned by a small IT provider that suddenly shut its doors.  Parting Thought  IT leaders should regularly review and audit the data they’ve stored across applications and endpoints, Thorsen says. To protect against unexpected vendor shutdowns, he suggests that data should be backed up regularly, made easily accessible, and stored in a secure environment. “Proactively managing data backups, rather than reacting to a crisis, can significantly reduce the impact on business continuity and protect against potential data loss,” Thorsen concludes.  source

You’d be hard-pressed to find an SAP shop that doesn’t rely on customizations to fine-tune the enterprise platform for specific business processes or industry requirements. Rather than sticking with the out-of-the-box ERP system, many companies opt to modify the code for purposes such as: Creating unique billing reports to improve the customer paymen experience Establishing regulatory compliance processes for specific industries Implementing dashboards that aggregate data for more informed decision-making Developing specialized product tracking systems These customizations are often vital to business productivity and can give companies a competitive edge. It’s important to keep customizations running strong, even if they take some extra effort to maintain. According to a survey conducted by the American SAP User Group (ASUG) and Pillir, 91% of SAP users rely on custom code for essential business processes. Much of this code has been around for a while — 45% of survey respondents said they rely on custom code deployed six or more years ago. However, key personnel associated with custom code development and business logic are often no longer in the company’s employ. “Customizations are fantastic for differentiating business, more so than the vanilla SAP platform,” says Scott Hays, senior director of product marketing at Rimini Street, a provider of third-party enterprise software support and services. “That said, customizations might not always be documented well, resulting in a dependency on the people who wrote them. But they are important to the business and need to be treated like any other mission-critical code.” The third-party support advantage Complicating matters, ERP vendors typically don’t include customization support as part of their standard maintenance programs. To fill the gap, enterprises can turn to expensive external consultants, spend additional funding to hire more staff or somehow find and dedicate internal resources to support the custom code. Or, they can depend on an experienced third-party support provider with the proven expertise to tend to their important customizations. For nearly two decades, Rimini Street has simplified the complexity of IT, providing tailored support and expertise for mission-critical customizations as if they were part of the standard product — and at no additional charge. Such a partnership could ensure seamless, secure operations and ample maintenance handholding, even for heavily customized SAP environments. And services can be added to document customizations, eliminating the knowledge gap for good. “During the never-ending cycle of upgrades pushed by software vendors is where customizations are most likely to run into problems,” says Hays. “With Rimini Street, IT and finance leaders can maximize the potential of their existing systems while keeping their software running and fully compliant without upgrades, enabling them to benefit from the competitive advantage customizations provide.” Significant savings can lead to business growth Compared to the in-house costs for supporting customizations which can add 30% to 40% on top of the annual maintenance fees of ERP vendors, Rimini Street reduces SAP annual maintenance fees by up to 50% and dissolves the need for dedicated staffing for support. For Proton, Malaysia’s national car manufacturer, the switch from SAP support to Rimini Street yielded significant savings, contributing to the expansion of one of their plants to accommodate greater production volumes. “Many SAP customers around the globe choose Rimini Street because of the quality of our support, leading in the speed, scale and scope of our coverage,” says Hays. “We know and appreciate the importance of keeping customizations to differentiate their business from competitors. It’s all about growth, all about profitability, and Rimini Street is the proven partner that helps clients achieve both by leveraging their customized SAP platform.” To learn more about how Rimini Street can help you get a handle on your SAP customizations and free up IT time for more strategic endeavors, visit here. source

By Sarah Jarvis ( December 16, 2024, 7:47 PM EST) — Becton Dickinson & Co. has agreed to pay $175 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s allegations that the medical device manufacturer misled investors about the risks of selling its Alaris infusion pump and overstated its income, the agency announced Monday…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has ushered in a new reasoning paradigm in large language models (LLMs) with its o1 model, which recently got a major upgrade. However, while OpenAI has a strong lead in reasoning models, it might lose some ground to open source rivals that are quickly emerging. Models like o1, sometimes referred to as large reasoning models (LRMs), use extra inference-time compute cycles to “think” more, review their responses and correct their answers. This enables them to solve complex reasoning problems that classic LLMs struggle with and makes them especially useful for tasks such as coding, math and data analysis.  However, in recent days, developers have shown mixed reactions to o1, especially after the updated release. Some have posted examples of o1 accomplishing incredible tasks while others have expressed frustration over the model’s confusing responses. Developers have experienced all kinds of problems from making illogical changes to code or ignoring instructions. Secrecy around o1 details Part of the confusion is due to OpenAI’s secrecy and refusal to show the details of how o1 works. The secret sauce behind the success of LRMs is the extra tokens that the model generates as it reaches the final response, referred to as the model’s “thoughts” or “reasoning chain.” For example, if you prompt a classic LLM to generate code for a task, it will immediately generate the code. In contrast, an LRM will generate reasoning tokens that examine the problem, plan the structure of code, and generate multiple solutions before emitting the final answer. o1 hides the thinking process and only shows the final response along with a message that displays how long the model thought and possibly a high overview of the reasoning process. This is partly to avoid cluttering the response and providing a smoother user experience. But more importantly, OpenAI considers the reasoning chain as a trade secret and wants to make it difficult for competitors to replicate o1’s capabilities. The costs of training new models continue to grow and profit margins are not keeping pace, which is pushing some AI labs to become more secretive in order to extend their lead. Even Apollo research, which did the red-teaming of the model, was not given access to its reasoning chain. This lack of transparency has led users to make all kinds of speculations, including accusing OpenAI of degrading the model to cut inference costs. Open-source models fully transparent On the other hand, open source alternatives such as Alibaba’s Qwen with Questions and Marco-o1 show the full reasoning chain of their models. Another alternative is DeepSeek R1, which is not open source but still reveals the reasoning tokens. Seeing the reasoning chain enables developers to troubleshoot their prompts and find ways to improve the model’s responses by adding additional instructions or in-context examples. Visibility into the reasoning process is especially important when you want to integrate the model’s responses into applications and tools that expect consistent results. Moreover, having control over the underlying model is important in enterprise applications. Private models and the scaffolding that supports them, such as the safeguards and filters that test their inputs and outputs, are constantly changing. While this may result in better overall performance, it can break many prompts and applications that were built on top of them. In contrast, open source models give full control of the model to the developer, which can be a more robust option for enterprise applications, where performance on very specific tasks is more important than general skills. QwQ and R1 are still in preview versions and o1 has the lead in terms of accuracy and ease of use. And for many uses, such as making general ad hoc prompts and one-time requests, o1 can still be a better option than the open source alternatives.  But the open-source community is quick to catch up with private models and we can expect more models to emerge in the coming months. They can turn into a suitable alternative where visibility and control are crucial. source