AnnouncementDutchOpen Source

Introducing openoranje: Dutch AI for Everyone

openoranje TeamDecember 1, 2024

We're excited to announce the launch of openoranje, an initiative dedicated to developing and open-sourcing Dutch language models optimized for edge inference and privacy-preserving applications.

Why Dutch AI Matters

The Netherlands has a rich linguistic heritage, and we believe Dutch speakers deserve AI models that truly understand their language—not just translations from English models. Our focus is on:

  • Native Dutch understanding: Models trained on Dutch text, for Dutch speakers
  • Edge inference: Run locally on your device, no cloud required
  • Privacy-first: Your data stays on your device
  • Open source: Fully transparent and community-driven

Our Approach

We're taking a different path from the large model race. Instead of training massive models that require expensive cloud infrastructure, we're focusing on:

Small but Capable Models

Our models are designed to run on consumer hardware—laptops, smartphones, and edge devices. We believe that a well-trained small model can outperform a poorly-trained large one for specific use cases.

Post-training Excellence

We specialize in post-training optimization:

# Example: Loading an openoranje model
from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer

model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("openoranje/oranje-1b")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("openoranje/oranje-1b")

# Generate Dutch text
output = model.generate(tokenizer.encode("Nederland is", return_tensors="pt"))
print(tokenizer.decode(output[0]))

What's Next

We're working on our first release: Oranje-1B, a 1 billion parameter model optimized for Dutch language understanding. Stay tuned for:

  • Model weights on Hugging Face
  • Training documentation
  • Benchmark results on Dutch NLP tasks
  • Integration guides

Join Us

We're building in the open and welcome contributions. Whether you're a researcher, developer, or just passionate about Dutch AI, there's a place for you in the openoranje community.

Follow our progress on GitHub and Hugging Face.


openoranje—Nederlandse AI, open en vrij.