How to use this reference

New to AI research? Start with the question you need to answer. USASI can help you identify organizations, find models and tools, understand access and license terms, and check the sources behind a claim. A listing is not an endorsement, a benchmark score, or a guarantee that a tool is right for you.

Four ways in

I want to understand a term

Start with the glossary. Each entry gives a plain definition, says how this catalog uses the term, and links to a real record. For the most common confusion, read what open weight and open source actually mean. Learn lists all ten short explainers.

I want to find something I can use

Open Open Models & Tools and narrow by kind, such as models or runtimes for running models yourself. On a record, read the availability and license sections before anything else: they say what you can get and under which terms. Then check the documentation, documented limitations, and any hardware notes. The People Behind Local AI page lists people whose work helps others run models on their own hardware.

I want to understand an organization

Open Companies & Labs and choose an organization. Its page shows its roles, ownership, products and how to access them, the open artifacts it maintains, and why it is eligible for this U.S.-focused catalog. Use Compare to view a few organizations side by side. To see how organizations fit into a field, start from a hub, such as running AI on your own hardware or chips, cloud, and compute, or browse organizations by headquarters state.

I want to check a claim

Every statement on a record has a numbered marker. Follow it to the original source, then check what the source actually measured or announced, when, and what it leaves unanswered. How sources and dates work explains the rules. If a record is wrong, report a correction; you don't need a GitHub account.

A checklist before you use a model or tool

• What exact release is this, and who maintains it?
• What can I actually obtain: weights, code, data, or only a hosted service?
• Which terms apply to each of those parts?
• Does it send information to another service when I use it?
• What hardware or paid services does it need?
• What limitations does the documentation state?
• When was this information last checked? Records show a reviewed date.

What this site is not

USASI is an independent project, not a U.S. government website. Its counts describe this catalog's coverage, not the whole field, and are not rankings or capability scores. Missing evidence is shown as Unknown rather than guessed. Support for the project never changes what is listed or how. Read the methodology for the full rules.