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Muse Spark Open release

AI & tech · Heat 1.1 / 10 · 2 shows · 12m airtime

Meta released Muse Spark Open on October 16, 2026, an open-weight model with 816 billion total and 42 billion active parameters and a 1 million token context window, built for coding and long-running agent work. Meta reported 61.8 on JobBench and 89.2 on MCP Atlas, but Artificial Analysis scored it 39, tied with DeepSeek V4-1 Flash and 7th among open models. The license carries limited commercial terms, and hosted-service sellers over $200M revenue require a separate agreement. Meta and Apple also revealed a collaboration to run the model locally by pairing two to four Mac Studios, with Apple updating its MLX toolkit; the full model needs a terabyte of memory, about $40,000 in hardware.

How 2 podcasts covered it

  1. Tech Brew Ride Home, 2026-10-16 (1:12 to 4:07)
    Breaks down the benchmarks and license terms
    First full read of the Muse Spark Open release: the 816B/42B parameter split, the 1M token context, the JobBench and MCP Atlas scores against Inkling and the Chinese open models, the limited commercial license terms, and the Apple Mac Studio collaboration.
    New angle: Muse Spark Open scored 61.8 on JobBench and 89.2 on MCP Atlas, and requires a separate agreement from hosted-service sellers over $200M revenue.
  2. Tech Brew Ride Home, 2026-10-16 (4:13 to 7:43)
    Details the Apple Mac Studio pairing deal
    Goes to the Apple side of the Muse Spark Open release: the Thursday partnership to run the 816B model locally on paired Mac Studios, the $10,799 minimum configuration, and Daniel Gross as the connector between the two companies.
    New angle: Meta and Apple will let customers pair two to four Mac Studios to run Muse Spark Open locally.
  3. The AI Daily Brief, 2026-10-16 (22:38 to 24:18)
    Adds Artificial Analysis's first independent score
    Adds the first independent score for Muse Spark Open: Artificial Analysis put it at 39, tied with DeepSeek V4-1 Flash, 17th overall and 7th among open models, about 7 points off the open state of the art and 13 ahead of Nemotron and Inkling.
    New angle: Artificial Analysis scored Muse Spark Open at 39, tied with DeepSeek V4-1 Flash, 7th among open models.
  4. The AI Daily Brief, 2026-10-16 (24:14 to 26:36)
    Recaps Meta's open-weight history and rebuild
    Recaps Meta's open-weight history - the Llama 3 era, the disappointing Llama 4 in April 2025, the unreleased Behemoth, and Zuckerberg's rebuild - to frame Muse Spark Open as a return to the top of the U.S. open-model ranking. Background and reaction, no new development.
  5. The AI Daily Brief, 2026-10-16 (26:36 to 28:24)
    Adds Apple's MLX update and the memory cost
    Adds the Apple side of the Muse Spark Open partnership: Apple updated its MLX toolkit for the model, Zuckerberg and John Ternus traded praise publicly, and the full model needs a terabyte of memory, roughly two maxed M5 Ultra Mac Studios at about $40,000.
    New angle: Apple updated its MLX toolkit for Muse Spark Open; the full model needs a terabyte of memory, about $40,000 in Mac Studios.
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