AI company Reflection says its new open model does more with less computing power
Beam is in early testing with a small waitlist. Reflection says anyone will be able to download it later this month.
AI company Reflection has announced Beam, its first "open-weight" model. Open-weight means the finished model can be downloaded, run and changed by anyone. It is not only used through one company's website.
Beam is not out for everyone yet. Reflection says it is still doing final safety tests. A small group of users can try an early version now through a waitlist. The company says it will share the model files later this month under an Apache 2.0 license. That is a free license that lets people use and change the software.
Beam was built mainly for writing code and for work where the AI carries out tasks step by step. It does not just answer questions.
The big claim is about saving power. On hard reasoning tests, Reflection says Beam scores about the same as a rival open model called GLM-5.2. It says Beam needs 3 to 4 times less computing power to make its answers. Less computing power usually means it costs less to run.
Reflection is also clear about where Beam falls short. It says another open model, Kimi K3, is still ahead on raw ability.
The company says it trained Beam with a separate safety step. It lists rules the model should not break. These include following its safety policies and always saying it is an AI.
Beam is the first model in a planned series. Reflection says it is already training the next one.
Open it and check the claim yourself. That is the point.