Forty Four on the Index, One Fifth the Price: StepFun's Six Hundred Billion Parameter Bid at the Frontier, September 20, 2026

Forty Four on the Index, One Fifth the Price: StepFun's Six Hundred Billion Parameter Bid at the Frontier, September 20, 2026 Shanghai startup StepFun released Step 5 Preview, a six hundred billion parameter sparse mixture of experts model that ties Kimi K3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index while charging less than a fifth of the output price. Rick Spair and Laura dig into the architecture, the benchmark numbers, the verbosity problem hiding behind that attractive per token price, and the open weights release promised for October 15 that still has no license attached. Hosted by Rick Spair and Laura. The DX Today Podcast brings you daily deep dives into the most consequential stories in the AI ecosystem. #AI #OpenWeights #StepFun #InferenceCost #FrontierModels