Models

A product, an API model, and an open weight file can share a brand and still be different systems. GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna shipped in the same week under one numeral, aimed at different ChatGPT tiers, while Work and Codex stayed on their previous models. When a claim says “the model,” ask which surface, which size, and which date.

Three layers cover most of what we file. Frontier assistants are the systems people talk to. Open weights are the systems a developer can run and inspect. Specialist models do one job well: embeddings, gene finding, speech, a world model. A briefing that only covers the first layer is a product blog.

For a model release we want the date, the lab, the parameter count or the tier names if parameters are withheld, the license, and where it runs. We also want what did not move. A chat launch that leaves the coding agent unchanged is part of the story.

Benchmarks stay attributed. “Best in class” is the lab’s sentence until someone else measures it. We would rather print the suite name and the delta, as with EmbeddingGemma 2’s reported MTEB Code move from 68.76 to 78.68, than a medal.