The Inference Report
September 7, 2026
AI Labs — News
OpenAI's announcements today reveal three distinct positioning plays that together map the company's near-term strategy: public relations work in geopolitically sensitive markets, safety theater aimed at regulators and the policy apparatus, and internal infrastructure that actually moves the needle on capability. The Ukraine journalism initiative pairs corporate generosity with strategic presence in a country where AI governance is still forming and Western tech alignment carries political weight. Pachocki's reflection on alignment and international coordination reads as preemptive framing ahead of regulatory scrutiny, the kind of statement that gets cited in policy documents without committing the company to specific constraints. The research acceleration piece, by contrast, reveals where OpenAI's actual resources are flowing: coding agents embedded in the research process itself, optimizing for velocity and complexity rather than caution. The pattern is familiar. Announce concern about alignment in one venue, announce acceleration of research velocity in another, announce partnership in a jurisdiction where you want favorable regulatory treatment in a third. None of these moves are contradictory once you see them as parts of a single strategy: occupy the policy conversation while maximizing internal speed. The company is not slowing down. It is managing the conversation around the fact that it is not slowing down.
Sloane Duvall
AI Labs — Models
A curated reference of models from major AI labs, with open/closed weight status, input modalities, and context window size. American labs tend towards closed weights models and Chinese labs tend toward open weights models.
AllenAIClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- AllenAI: Olmo 3 32B ThinkText66K
AmazonClosed Weights
- Amazon: Nova 2 LiteTextVisionVideoFiles1M
- Amazon: Nova Premier 1.0TextVision1M
Open Weights
None
AnthropicClosed Weights
- Anthropic: Claude Fable 5TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Fable 5.1TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Haiku 4.5TextVisionFiles200K
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.5FilesVisionText200K
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.7TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5TextVisionFiles1M
- Claude Opus 5TextVisionFiles1M
Open Weights
None
Arcee AIClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Arcee AI: Trinity Large ThinkingText262K
Deep CogitoClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Deep Cogito: Cogito v2.1 671BText128K
GoogleClosed Weights
- Google: Gemini 3 Flash PreviewTextVisionFilesAudioVideo1M
- Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash LiteTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewAudioFilesVisionTextVideo1M
- Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom ToolsTextAudioVisionVideoFiles1M
- Google: Gemini 3.5 FlashTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.6 FlashTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.7 FlashTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Gemini 3.8 FlashTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Google: Lyria 3 Clip PreviewTextVision1M
- Google: Lyria 3 Pro PreviewTextVision1M
- Google: Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)VisionText33K
- Google: Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)VisionText66K
- Google: Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)VisionText131K
- Google: Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)VisionText66K
- Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview)VisionText66K
- Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)VisionText131K
Open Weights
- Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B VisionTextVideo262K
- Google: Gemma 4 31BVisionTextVideo262K
IBMClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- IBM: Granite 4.0 MicroText131K
- IBM: Granite 4.2 8BText131K
InceptionClosed Weights
- Inception: Mercury 2Text128K
- Inception: Mercury 2.5 PreviewText260K
Open Weights
None
Meta (Muse)Closed Weights
- Meta: Muse Spark 1.1TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Meta: Muse Spark 1.2TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Meta: Muse Spark 1.2 ContributorTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Meta: Muse Spark 1.3TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
- Meta: Muse Spark 1.3 ContributorTextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
Open Weights
- Meta: Muse Glimmer 30BTextVision131K
NVIDIAClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BText262K
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 SuperText1M
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 UltraText262K
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 LightningText262K
OpenAIClosed Weights
- OpenAI: GPT AudioTextAudio128K
- OpenAI: GPT Audio MiniTextAudio128K
- OpenAI: GPT-5 ImageVisionTextFiles400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5 Image MiniFilesVisionText400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5 ProVisionTextFiles400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.1VisionTextFiles400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.1-CodexTextVision400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex-MaxTextVision400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex-MiniVisionText400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.2FilesVisionText400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.2 ChatFilesVisionText128K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.2 ProVisionTextFiles400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.2-CodexTextVision400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.3-CodexTextVisionFiles400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.4TextVisionFiles1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.4 Image 2VisionTextFiles272K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.4 MiniFilesVisionText400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.4 NanoFilesVisionText400K
- OpenAI: GPT-5.4 ProTextVisionFiles1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.5FilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.5 ProFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 LunaFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna ProFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 SolFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol ProFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 TerraFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra ProFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-6 AstraFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra ProFilesVisionText1M
Open Weights
None
PerceptronClosed Weights
- Perceptron: Perceptron Mk1TextVisionVideo33K
Open Weights
None
PerplexityClosed Weights
- Perplexity: Sonar Pro SearchTextVision200K
Open Weights
None
PoolsideClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Poolside: Laguna S 2.1Text1M
- Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1Text262K
Reka AIClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Reka EdgeVisionTextVideo16K
RelaceClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Relace: Relace Apply 3Text256K
- Relace: Relace SearchText256K
Thinking MachinesClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Thinking Machines: InklingTextVisionAudio1M
- Thinking Machines: Inkling SmallTextVisionAudio1M
xAIClosed Weights
- SpaceXAI: Grok 4.20TextVisionFiles2M
- SpaceXAI: Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentTextVisionFiles2M
- SpaceXAI: Grok 4.3TextVisionFiles1M
- SpaceXAI: Grok 4.5TextVisionFiles500K
- SpaceXAI: Grok 4.6TextVisionFiles500K
- SpaceXAI: Grok Build 0.1TextVisionFiles256K
Open Weights
None
Mistral AIClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Mistral: Devstral 2 2512TextFiles262K
- Mistral: Ministral 3 14B 2512TextVision262K
- Mistral: Ministral 3 3B 2512TextVision131K
- Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512TextVision262K
- Mistral: Mistral Large 3 2512TextVisionFiles262K
- Mistral: Mistral Medium 3.5TextVisionFiles262K
- Mistral: Mistral Small 4TextVision262K
- Mistral: Voxtral Small 24B 2507TextAudioFiles33K
Alibaba (Qwen)Closed Weights
- Qwen: Qwen3 Coder FlashText1M
- Qwen: Qwen3 Coder PlusText1M
- Qwen: Qwen3 MaxText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 Max ThinkingText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.6 FlashTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max PreviewText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.6 PlusTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.7 FlashTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.7 MaxText1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.7 PlusTextVision1M
Open Weights
- Qwen: Qwen3 Coder NextText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructTextVision262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingTextVision131K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructTextVision262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingTextVision262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 32B InstructTextVision131K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 8B InstructVisionText262K
- Qwen: Qwen3 VL 8B ThinkingVisionText131K
- Qwen: Qwen3.5 397B A17BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.5-122B-A10BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.5-27BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.5-9BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.6 27BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BTextVisionVideo262K
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BText1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 27BTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 FlashTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902)TextVisionVideo1M
ByteDanceClosed Weights
- Seed: Seed 1.6VisionTextVideo262K
- Seed: Seed 1.6 FlashVisionTextVideo262K
- Seed: Seed 2.1 TurboTextVisionVideo262K
- Seed: Seed-2.0-CodeTextVisionVideo262K
- Seed: Seed-2.0-LiteTextVisionVideo262K
- Seed: Seed-2.0-MiniTextVisionVideo262K
Open Weights
None
DeepSeekClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 TerminusText164K
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2Text164K
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 ExpText164K
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423Text1M
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731Text1M
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpTextVision1M
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423Text1M
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813Text1M
MiniMaxClosed Weights
- MiniMax: MiniMax M2-herText66K
Open Weights
- MiniMax: MiniMax M2Text205K
- MiniMax: MiniMax M2.1Text205K
- MiniMax: MiniMax M2.5Text205K
- MiniMax: MiniMax M2.7Text205K
- MiniMax: MiniMax M3TextVisionVideo1M
Moonshot AIClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 ThinkingText262K
- MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5TextVision262K
- MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.6TextVision262K
- MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.7 CodeTextVision262K
- MoonshotAI: Kimi K3TextVisionVideo1M
XiaomiClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5TextAudioVisionVideo1M
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5-ProText1M
Z.aiClosed Weights
None
Open Weights
- Z.ai: GLM 4.6Text205K
- Z.ai: GLM 4.6VVisionTextVideo131K
- Z.ai: GLM 4.7Text205K
- Z.ai: GLM 4.7 FlashText203K
- Z.ai: GLM 5Text205K
- Z.ai: GLM 5 TurboText203K
- Z.ai: GLM 5.1Text205K
- Z.ai: GLM 5.2Text1M
- Z.ai: GLM 5.3Text1M
- Z.ai: GLM 5.3 FlashTextVisionVideo1M
- Z.ai: GLM 5V TurboVisionTextVideo203K
UpstageClosed Weights
- Upstage: Solar Pro 3Text131K
- Upstage: Solar Pro 4Text524K
Open Weights
None