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.
Tech
Interconnects.
Nathan Lambert on AI research from inside frontier labs, minus the hype.
Recent essays
30 of 45Open 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.
Latest open artifacts (#20): New orgs! New types of models! With Nemotron Super, Sarvam, Cohere Transcribe, & others
New orgs! New types of models! With Nemotron Super, Sarvam, Cohere Transcribe, & others
Lossy self-improvement
The case for why self-improvement is real but it doesn't lead to fast takeoff.
GPT 5.4 is a big step for Codex
On evaluating and understanding the frontier of agents, and why I still turn to Claude.
What comes next with open models
Markets, capabilities, cope, and bewilderment in the industrialization of language models.
Dean Ball on open models and government control
Subtle precedents on the future of open models set by the unfolding Anthropic v. Department of War case.
Olmo Hybrid and future LLM architectures
The latest Olmo model and discussions at the frontier of open-source post training tools.
Latest open artifacts (#19): Qwen 3.5, GLM 5, MiniMax 2.5 — Chinese labs' latest push of the frontier
Welcome to the year of the horse!
How much does distillation really matter for Chinese LLMs?
Reacting to Anthropic's post on "distillation attacks."
Open models in perpetual catch-up
The open-closed gap, distillation, innovation timescales, how open models win, specialized models, what’s missing, etc.
Opus 4.6, Codex 5.3, and the post-benchmark era
On comparing models in 2026.
Why Nvidia builds open models with Bryan Catanzaro
Interconnects interview #17 on the past, present, and future of the Nemotron project.
Latest open artifacts (#18): Arcee's 400B MoE, LiquidAI's underrated 1B model, new Kimi, and anticipation of a busy month
Tons of useful "niche" models and anticipation of big releases coming soon.
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.