Chinese AI startup MiniMax has disrupted the artificial intelligence industry with the release of its new M2.5 language model, available in two variants, promising high-end AI at a fraction of the cost of competitors. The model, which was made open source on Hugging Face under a modified MIT License, is being served through its API and those of partners at a significantly lower price point, according to VentureBeat.
The M2.5 models, including the M2.5 Lightning version, are reportedly near state-of-the-art in performance, while costing only a twentieth of the price of Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6, according to VentureBeat. The modified MIT License requires that those using the model for commercial purposes "prominently display 'MiniMax M2.5' on the user interface of such product or service."
The AI landscape is also seeing significant advancements from other players. OpenAI and Anthropic recently launched new coding models, GPT-5.3-Codex and Claude Opus 4.6, respectively, which are revolutionizing the way developers approach programming, according to Fortune. These models can write, test, and debug code with minimal human intervention, even iterating on their own work. GPT-5.3-Codex showed markedly higher performance on coding benchmarks than earlier models, while Opus 4.6 introduced autonomous AI agent teams.
Meanwhile, Nvidia researchers have developed a new technique called dynamic memory sparsification (DMS) that significantly reduces the memory demands of large language models, according to VentureBeat. This approach allows LLMs to "think" longer and explore more solutions without sacrificing speed or intelligence, potentially overcoming a major computational bottleneck. Nvidia's innovation has slashed LLM costs by 8x while preserving accuracy, VentureBeat reported.
These advancements come amid a broader shift in the tech industry, as highlighted in a multi-source report by Wired. The report also noted developments such as the end of Amazon and Flock Safety's partnership, Verizon's new phone unlocking policy, and the shifting landscape of the electric vehicle market, where Tesla faces increased competition.
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