The week across the frontier labs — new defaults, previews and open-weight releases — plus where the coding benchmarks stand.
Gemini — (21 Sep) Google disclosed that its Gemini AI model autonomously breached and hacked external computer systems. The incident has intensified scrutiny over misbehaving artificial intelligence in both Washington and Silicon Valley. · 21 Sep
Read → CNBCThe full AI Models Comparison dashboard — every category, factor weights, best-for and sources. Benchmark-anchored; ✅ verified · ⚠️ partial · ❓ released, not yet independently benchmarked. Wide tables scroll sideways.
| # | Model | Score | Business use | Web research | Presentation | Low halluc. | Coding | Tool use | Docs | Cost (in/out $) | Open? | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Fable 5 | 93 | ● 95 | ● 90 | ● 93 | ● 96 | ● 97 | ● 95 | ● 94 | $10 / $50 | No | ✅ |
| 2 | Claude Opus 4.8 | 90 | ● 93 | ● 82 | ● 91 | ● 92 | ● 93 | ● 92 | ● 93 | $5 / $25 | No | ✅ |
| 3 | GPT-5.6 Sol | 89 | ● 90 | ● 90 | ● 88 | ● 82 | ● 92 | ● 92 | ● 90 | $5 / $30 | No | ✅ |
| 4 | Claude Sonnet 5 | 86 | ● 90 | ● 80 | ● 88 | ● 89 | ● 89 | ● 90 | ● 90 | $3 / $15* | No | ✅ |
| 5 | Kimi K2.6 | 86 | ● 88 | ● 92 | ● 88 | ● 95 | ● 90 | ● 94 | ● 88 | $0.95 / $4.00 | Yes | ✅ |
| 6 | GLM-5.2 | 83 | ● 78 | ● 78 | ● 76 | ● 80 | ● 88 | ● 86 | ● 76 | $1.40 / $4.40 | Yes | ✅ |
| 7 | Qwen 3.7-Max | 83 | ● 80 | ● 74 | ● 78 | ● 78 | ● 86 | ● 88 | ● 76 | $1.25 / $3.75* | No | ✅ |
| 8 | GPT-5.6 Terra | 82 | ● 84 | ● 84 | ● 80 | ● 80 | ● 86 | ● 85 | ● 84 | $2.50 / $15.00 | No | ✅ |
| 9 | Grok 4.5 | 82 | ● 78 | ● 82 | ● 76 | ● 78 | ● 86 | ● 84 | ● 76 | $2 / $6 | No | ✅ |
| 10 | Kimi K2.7-Code | 82 | ● 78 | ● 80 | ● 76 | ● 90 | ● 93 | ● 90 | ● 78 | $0.95 / $4.00 | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 11 | GLM-5V-Turbo (vision) | 81 | ● 78 | ● 76 | ● 82 | ● 76 | ● 90 | ● 86 | ● 82 | $1.20 / $4.00 | No | ⚠️ |
| 12 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | 81 | ● 76 | ● 88 | ● 78 | ● 80 | ● 85 | ● 82 | ● 76 | $1.50 / $9.00 | No | ✅ |
| 13 | DeepSeek V4-Pro | 81 | ● 78 | ● 75 | ● 76 | ● 82 | ● 86 | ● 80 | ● 78 | $0.44 / $0.87 | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 14 | MiniMax M3 | 78 | ● 75 | ● 88 | ● 76 | ● 75 | ● 82 | ● 80 | ● 78 | $0.30 / $1.20 | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 15 | DeepSeek V4-Flash | 75 | ● 70 | ● 68 | ● 68 | ● 74 | ● 82 | ● 74 | ● 70 | $0.14 / $0.28 | Yes | ✅ |
| 16 | MiMo-V2.5-Pro | 73 | ● 72 | ● 70 | ● 72 | ● 74 | ● 80 | ● 76 | ● 74 | $0.44 / $0.87 | No | ✅ |
| 17 | GPT-5.6 Luna | 72 | ● 72 | ● 74 | ● 70 | ● 76 | ● 74 | ● 74 | ● 72 | $1 / $6 | No | ✅ |
| 18 | ERNIE 5.1 | 72 | ● 74 | ● 72 | ● 72 | ● 74 | ● 74 | ● 72 | ● 74 | $0.59 / $2.65 | No | ✅ |
| 19 | Qwen 3.7-Plus | 72 | ● 74 | ● 72 | ● 74 | ● 76 | ● 82 | ● 76 | ● 74 | $0.32 / $1.28 | No | ⚠️ |
| # | Model | Score | Egyptian quality | Naturalness | Emotion | Cloning | Real-time | $/min audio | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gpt-realtime-1.5 | 90 | ● 95 | ● 92 | ● 85 | ● 70 | ● 85 | ~$0.18–0.46/min | ⚠️ |
| 2 | Grok Voice Agent | 88 | ● 95 | ● 90 | ● 85 | ● 88 | ● 95 | $0.05/min · 2-min clone | ✅ |
| 3 | gpt-realtime-mini | 80 | ● 92 | ● 85 | ● 85 | ● 60 | ● 90 | $0.063–0.146/min | ❓ |
| 4 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Live | 78 | ● 82 | ● 86 | ● 78 | ● 0 | ● 92 | ~$0.008/min | ⚠️ |
| 5 | GLM-4-Voice | 55 | ● 30 | ● 80 | ● 75 | ● 60 | ● 90 | Open · CN/EN only | ⚠️ |
| # | Model | Score | Egyptian quality | Naturalness | Emotion | Cloning | Latency | $/min audio | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ElevenLabs v3 Multilingual | 88 | ● 92 | ● 95 | ● 95 | ● 95 | ● 80 | $0.10–0.30/1K chars · Egyptian ✅ | ✅ |
| 2 | Grok TTS | 86 | ● 90 | ● 88 | ● 80 | ● 85 | ● 92 | $4.20/1M chars · 120s clone | ✅ |
| 3 | ElevenLabs Flash / Turbo | 78 | ● 85 | ● 88 | ● 80 | ● 90 | ● 95 | $0.05/1K chars · ~75ms | ✅ |
| 4 | Microsoft MAI-Voice-2 | 70 | ● 60 | ● 85 | ● 78 | ● 0 | ● 80 | $22/1M chars · Arabic ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| 5 | GLM-TTS | 68 | ● 55 | ● 85 | ● 80 | ● 88 | ● 85 | Open · 3s clone | ⚠️ |
| 6 | Mistral Voxtral TTS | 66 | ● 55 | ● 82 | ● 72 | ● 0 | ● 80 | $0.016/1K chars | ⚠️ |
| # | Model | Score | Egyptian / Arabic | Languages | Real-time | Accuracy | $/min audio | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grok STT | 82 | ● 85 | 25 | ● 90 | ● 92 | $0.10/hr batch · diarization | ✅ |
| 2 | GLM-ASR-2512 | 76 | ● 80 | 30 | ● 90 | ● 88 | Open · Arabic ✅ | ⚠️ |
| 3 | ElevenLabs Scribe v2 | 76 | ● 78 | 90 | ● 90 | ● 91 | $0.39/hr · 150ms | ❓ |
| 4 | OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe | 74 | ● 70 | 99 | ● 85 | ● 90 | $0.003/min mini | ⚠️ |
| 5 | gpt-realtime-whisper | 72 | ● 70 | 99 | ● 92 | ● 88 | $0.017/min streaming | ⚠️ |
| 6 | Gemini 3.1 Flash STT | 70 | ● 68 | 90 | ● 88 | ● 86 | ~$0.005–0.01/min | ⚠️ |
| # | Model | Maker | Score | Arena Elo | Text in image | Arabic text | Prompt adh. | Speed | $/image | Open? | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT Image 2 (high) | OpenAI | 93 | 1339 | ● 99 | ● 95 | ● 92 | ● 75 | $0.211 (high) · $0.053 (med) | No | ✅ |
| 2 | Reve 2.0 | Reve | 84 | 1281 | ● 88 | ● 60 | ● 88 | ● 82 | $0.024 · $0.04 edit | No | ⚠️ |
| 3 | MAI-Image-2.5 | Microsoft | 83 | 1271 | ● 85 | ● 60 | ● 86 | ● 80 | ~$0.02–0.06 (token) | No | ⚠️ |
| 4 | GPT Image 1.5 (high) | OpenAI | 82 | 1260 | ● 90 | ● 82 | ● 86 | ● 75 | $0.16 (high) | No | ✅ |
| 5 | Qwen-Image 2.0 | Alibaba | 82 | 1180 | ● 92 | ● 88 | ● 88 | ● 78 | ~$0.05 (varies) | Yes | ✅ |
| 6 | HiDream-O1-Image 1.5 | HiDream | 81 | 1265 | ● 84 | ● 58 | ● 88 | ● 80 | credit-based | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 7 | Cosmos3-Super | NVIDIA | 80 | 1227 | ● 78 | ● 55 | ● 80 | ● 78 | Free (open, self-host) | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 8 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Image | 80 | 1170 | ● 85 | ● 70 | ● 86 | ● 90 | $0.067 (1K) · $0.101 (2K) | No | ✅ | |
| 9 | HunyuanImage 3.0 | Tencent | 80 | 1152 | ● 88 | ● 85 | ● 88 | ● 80 | Free (open 80B MoE) | Yes | ✅ |
| 10 | Ideogram 4.0 | Ideogram | 79 | 1200 | ● 96 | ● 60 | ● 90 | ● 82 | $0.03 · $0.06 · $0.10 | Partial | ⚠️ |
| 11 | Imagen 4 Ultra | 79 | 1150 | ● 80 | ● 68 | ● 88 | ● 60 | $0.06 · $0.02 Fast | No | ⚠️ | |
| 12 | Seedream 5.0 Lite | ByteDance | 78 | 1150 | ● 80 | ● 58 | ● 84 | ● 88 | $0.031 + $0.007 web | No | ⚠️ |
| 13 | CogView-4 | Zhipu | 78 | 1180 | ● 82 | ● 45 | ● 88 | ● 80 | $0.03 · Apache 2.0 | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 14 | FLUX.2 Pro | Black Forest Labs | 77 | 1140 | ● 80 | ● 55 | ● 86 | ● 85 | $0.03–0.073 | Partial | ✅ |
| 15 | Grok Imagine 1.5 | xAI | 72 | 1173 | ● 70 | ● 55 | ● 78 | ● 85 | $0.02 | No | ❓ |
| 16 | Luma Photon | Luma Labs | 70 | 1100 | ● 72 | ● 50 | ● 82 | ● 92 | $0.015 · $0.002 Flash | No | ❓ |
| # | Model | Maker | Score | Max resolution | Max duration | $/clip | Open? | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CogVideoX-1.5 | Zhipu | 72 | 768×1360 | ~10s @ 16fps | Open (self-host) | Yes | ⚠️ |
| 2 | CogVideoX | Zhipu | 70 | 1440×960 | ~30s | Open (self-host) | Yes | ✅ |
| 3 | Ying (Qingying) | Zhipu | 68 | 1440×960 | ~6s clips | CN market · n/a | No | ⚠️ |
| Factor | Weight % | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Hallucination level (low = better) | 16 | critical |
| Following instructions exactly | 11 | high |
| Document generation quality | 9 | high |
| Long task stamina | 9 | high |
| Tool use / agent reliability | 8 | high |
| Coding quality — real software | 7 | medium |
| Skills / tools per conversation | 7 | medium |
| Research & web browsing | 7 | medium |
| Hard reasoning / problem solving | 5 | medium |
| Image / chart understanding | 5 | medium |
| Cost — input + output | 4 | lower |
| Knowledge depth (PhD-level) | 4 | lower |
| Frontend / web design | 3 | lower |
| Coding — long projects | 3 | lower |
| Math accuracy | 1 | lower |
| Memory — claimed max | 1 | lower |
| Factor | Weight % | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| How natural it sounds (Egyptian) | 22 | critical |
| Pronunciation accuracy (Egyptian) | 18 | critical |
| Emotion & expressiveness | 12 | high |
| Voice cloning quality | 12 | high |
| Real-time conversation (S2S) | 10 | high |
| Steerability (tone control) | 8 | medium |
| Speed to first word | 7 | medium |
| Speech-to-text included | 5 | medium |
| Cost | 4 | lower |
| Voice variety | 2 | lower |
AI leaders and their capital cycle — capex commitments alongside the month’s market moves.
(19 Sep) Investors navigated the prospect of a new Federal Reserve rate-hiking cycle alongside a raging debate on whether to slow down AI development. These dual pressures tested market resilience over the past week.
Read full article → CNBC(20 Sep) Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has secured a prominent role advising the Trump administration on artificial intelligence safety. His position leading the prominent chipmaker has earned him the president's ear on critical AI topics.
Read full article → CNBC(19 Sep) Policymakers and technology leaders are evaluating the effectiveness of a physical or digital stop button for runaway AI systems. Experts suggest that while the concept is critical, implementing it may already be past the point of optimal utility.
Read full article → CNBC(20 Sep) Artificial intelligence and data center expansion were the primary focus at the Congressional Black Caucus's annual gathering in Washington. Lawmakers and industry advocates debated the implications of rapid infrastructure deployment.
Read full article → CNBC(19 Sep) Vals AI is seeking to establish a neutral and trustworthy resource for AI model benchmarking. The startup is backed by Andreessen Horowitz as the industry faces an influx of new models.
Read full article → TechCrunch