Brief

Recent advancements in smaller language models (SLMs) demonstrate significant improvements in agentic tasks, with models like Gemma 4 31B and Qwen3.6 27B achieving near-parity with larger frontier models on benchmarks. Despite these performance gains and cost efficiencies, the industry has been slow to adopt SLM-based agent stacks, largely because frontier model providers and agent platforms profit from using larger, more expensive models. A key challenge with SLMs is that while they may achieve correct answers, their reasoning processes can be flawed, necessitating additional layers like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and distilled verifiers to ensure reliability. AI

DeepSeek V4 Flash, a new iteration of the DeepSeek V4 model, has demonstrated impressive performance metrics. It achieves a throughput of 350 tokens per second with a latency of approximately 1.5 seconds. This advancement is attributed to Tensorix and Cortecs, with implications for AI development in the EU. AI

Several LLM providers have adjusted their pricing and model availability. Qwen saw mixed changes, with some variants increasing in price while others decreased, and new models like Qwen3.7 Max were introduced. Google's Gemini Flash Latest experienced a significant price hike, while Z.ai's GLM 5.1 became free. Additionally, Alibaba's Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B model was removed from catalogs, prompting users to seek alternatives. AI