Open models recap: more on Kimi K3, Qwen 3.8, Xi's WAIC speech, distillation, the open-closed gap, and what's next
A podcast with Florian Brand.
Tech
Interconnects.
Nathan Lambert on AI research from inside frontier labs, minus the hype.
Recent essays
30 of 43Kimi K3: The open-weights escalation
The global implications on the AI ecosystem.
6 months to live for open models
The most serious test to date of open source AI’s viability is happening right now.
Latest open artifacts (#22): Zyphra, Cohere, and Poolside are expanding the breadth of the ecosystem
An assessment of the open ecosystem and the motivations behind releasing models
GLM-5.2 is the step change for open agents
A capability threshold I've been carefully monitoring.
Banning Open Source AI Would Be A Mistake
This post was originally an op-ed co-authored with Kevin Xu of Interconnected for a general, non-technical audience.
State of the blog, mid-2026
About 3 years since I started writing weekly.
Frontier post-training recipe review with Finbarr Timbers
"Interview" #18
Welcome to the AGI era of AI governance
It's a one-way door and we weren't ready for it.
Claude Fable 5 and new AI safety fables
One step further into the power politics of frontier AI systems.
Farewell Ai2
This was my last week at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), where I got the great privilege to work on the Olmo models, to grow, to learn, and to have broad lasting impacts.
Open and closed models are on different exponentials
Where marginally higher intelligence drives value, and where it doesn't.
Some ideas for what comes next, May 2026
Gemini Flash 3.5, Mythos, open-closed balance, America's open-source surge, emerging power struggles and more.
Latest open artifacts (#21): Open model bonanza! Gemma 4, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, MiMo 2.5, GLM-5.1 & others. On CAISI's V4 assessment.
An eventful month with one flagship release after another
How open model ecosystems compound
Further reflections on China's high-participation, open-first AI ecosystem.
Notes from inside China's AI labs
Lessons from my trip to talk to most of the leading AI labs in China.
The distillation panic
‘Distillation attacks’ is a horrible term for what is happening right now.
Reading today's open-closed performance gap
The complex factors that determine the single evaluation number so many focus on. Plus, how this changes in the future.
My bets on open models, mid-2026
What I expect to come next and why, focused on the open-closed gap.
What I’ve been building: ATOM Report, post-training course, finishing my book, and ongoing research
What I've been up to!
The inevitable need for an open model consortium
And yes, I hate consortia too.
Claude Mythos and misguided open-weight fearmongering
Another dance around fears of open-source.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Hint: it's not benchmark scores.
Thoughts on the job market in the age of LLMs
On standing out and finding gems.
Arcee AI goes all-in on open models built in the U.S.
Interconnects interview #16 to celebrate the release of Trinity Large.
Get Good at Agents
The tools are getting so powerful that we need to change how we scope, manage, and approach our work.
Use multiple models
The new meta for getting the most out of AI in 2026.
Claude Code Hits Different
Coding agents cross a meaningful threshold with Opus 4.5.
8 plots that explain the state of open models
Measuring the impact of Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama, GPT-OSS, Nemotron, and all of the new entrants to the ecosystem.
Latest open artifacts (#17): NVIDIA, Arcee, Minimax, DeepSeek, Z.ai and others close an eventful year on a high note
Ending the year with a bang.