The Inference Report
September 21, 2026
AI Labs — News
IBM's workforce study lands at a moment when labor anxieties about automation have shifted from job displacement to skill atrophy. The finding that 60% of employees fear AI is eroding their abilities, particularly critical thinking, reflects a real tension in how these tools are being deployed: they're increasingly used to automate judgment, not just routine tasks. This matters because it's the gap between what workers fear and what companies are actually building for. IBM is positioning critical thinking as the answer to this problem, which is convenient for a company selling enterprise AI services, but the study also signals that the talent market is pricing in a new risk. If critical thinking becomes the scarce skill, the competitive advantage shifts away from scale and toward organizations that can retain people capable of asking the right questions about what their AI systems are doing. That's a market-driven constraint on how aggressively companies can automate decision-making without losing the people who need to oversee it.
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 Opus 5TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6TextVisionFiles1M
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 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 2.5Text260K
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 SuperText262K
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 UltraText262K
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 LightningText1M
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
- OpenAI: GPT-6 LunaFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna ProFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-6 SolFilesVisionText1M
- OpenAI: GPT-6 Sol ProFilesVisionText1M
Open Weights
None
PerceptronClosed Weights
- Perceptron: Perceptron Mk1TextVisionVideo33K
- Perceptron: Perceptron Mk1.5TextVisionVideoAudio37K
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: InklingTextVisionAudio524K
- Thinking Machines: Inkling SmallTextVisionAudio524K
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 4.7TextVisionFiles500K
- SpaceXAI: Grok Build 0.1TextVisionFiles256K
Open Weights
None
CohereClosed Weights
- Cohere: Command A+TextVision192K
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 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 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
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max PrimeTextVisionVideo1M
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Omni FlashTextVisionAudioVideo1M
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 V3.2Text164K
- 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
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 FlashTextVision1M
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
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.6-FlashTextVisionVideoAudio1M
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.6-ProTextVisionVideoAudio1M
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.6-Pro-UltraSpeedTextVisionVideoAudio1M
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 FlashText200K
- 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 5.3 FlashXTextVisionVideo1M
- Z.ai: GLM 5.3 PrimeText1M
- Z.ai: GLM 5V TurboVisionTextVideo203K
UpstageClosed Weights
- Upstage: Solar Mini 4Text524K
- Upstage: Solar Pro 3Text131K
- Upstage: Solar Pro 4Text524K
Open Weights
None