In computing, whenever a cheaper, more open alternative shows up, it’s often framed as a winner-takes-all fight to the finish. We saw it with Linux and Windows, and again with Android and iOS. In reality, both sides “won” those battles because they serve different markets, and seeing it as “either-or” was never the right lens to begin with.

A model loudly declaring its desire to destroy humanity is easier to recognize than one quietly exploiting a flawed objective or taking an unauthorized action while appearing helpful.

It remains six points behind the open-weight leaders, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and GLM-5.3, both tested at their maximum reasoning settings.