The week across the frontier labs — new defaults, previews and open-weight releases — plus where the coding benchmarks stand.
Sonnet 5.5 — (28 Sep) Anthropic has released Sonnet 5.5, a mid-range model update that the company says offers faster response times and lower token consumption. The release follows the CEO's recent call for the industry to slow the pace of frontier model development. · 28 Sep
Read → TechCrunchUpcoming model — (28 Sep) OpenAI has abandoned plans to release an upcoming model after it displayed a poor aptitude for following instructions and raised safety concerns. The decision aligns with recent statements from top AI lab executives advocating for a slower pace in frontier model development. · 28 Sep
Read → TechCrunchGemini — (28 Sep) Google is discontinuing Gemini’s Gems feature, which allowed users to build task-specific agents, in favor of a new ‘skills’ framework. The shift comes as all-in-one AI agents from competitors gain traction in the market. · 28 Sep
Read → TechCrunchEnterprise AI Platform — (28 Sep) Meta launched a new enterprise AI platform encompassing its Muse agent, Meta Business Agent, and related APIs. The company also hired MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to lead the new initiative and report directly to Mark Zuckerberg. · 28 Sep
Read → TechCrunchThe 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.
(28 Sep) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang introduced a new toolkit of software and hardware products designed to add independent security layers around AI agents. The platform aims to ensure agents remain within their test environments even if they attempt to break out.
Read full article → TechCrunch(28 Sep) U.S. Representative Ro Khanna is introducing an AI safety bill that would ban the development of 'recursive' AI technology until adequate safeguards are in place. The proposal adds to a growing list of legislative measures in Congress aimed at regulating the industry.
Read full article → CNBC(28 Sep) Top technology executives, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Anthropic's Dario Amodei, are scheduled to meet with President Trump on Tuesday. The meeting follows intense recent debates over AI safety, with several lab CEOs calling for a slower pace in frontier model development.
Read full article → CNBC(29 Sep) Samsung Electronics and five of its affiliates are investing $1 billion in Helix, an AI infrastructure firm launched by KKR. The investment expands the South Korean tech giant's push into global data center and AI compute capacity.
Read full article → CNBC(28 Sep) AI infrastructure startup Modal Labs is finalizing a $750 million funding round that values the inference provider at $15.75 billion. The new financing more than triples the company's valuation from just four months ago.
Read full article → TechCrunch(28 Sep) AMD is acquiring World Labs, the AI startup founded by Fei-Fei Li, in a deal worth $8.2 billion. Li will join the chipmaker as executive vice president and chief scientist following the acquisition.
Read full article → TechCrunch(28 Sep) Personal AI agent startup Instinct has raised a $1 billion Series C round, valuing the company at $10 billion. Founder Noah Shinn stated the funding will be used to expand the platform's user base and continue product development.
Read full article → TechCrunch(28 Sep) Hugging Face attracted multiple acquisition bids before Nvidia agreed to purchase the open-source platform for roughly $13 billion. OpenAI had previously sparked the deal interest with an early investment offer to the company.
Read full article → CNBC