Thomson Reuters launched its self-developed AI model Thomson-1, based on Alibaba's open-source Qwen

According to Business Insider, Thomson Reuters launched its first self-developed AI model, Thomson-1, on Monday. This model is based on Snowdon and constructed through "re-alignment" of Alibaba's open-source Qwen model. Open-source means anyone can download and modify the model for free. Thomson-1 will take over some tasks previously handled by Anthropic's Claude, but it is not intended to completely replace collaboration with Anthropic and other labs, initially focusing on the company's areas of expertise, starting with document review.

This move aims to address the high AI costs brought by models like Claude and OpenAI Codex, and reflects the use of cheaper Chinese open-source AI. CTO Joel Hron stated that the main reason is to better leverage Thomson Reuters' own expertise and control costs. The company expanded its collaboration with Anthropic in May this year for the AI legal assistant CoCounsel, which still primarily relies on Claude. Hron said, "Our main goal is to gradually make Thomson the model that drives more and more capabilities for CoCounsel."

Thomson Reuters, in collaboration with a team from Imperial College London, spent months transforming Qwen to build Snowdon and ensured it is "ethically and politically bias-processed and safe to use." Hron pointed out that having a proprietary model allows for development based on its own intellectual property rather than continuously paying external AI companies, comparing it to renting versus buying a house: renting provides shelter but does not accumulate long-term equity.