ISD Insights · This Week in ASI

This Week in ASI: week to 31 October 2026

A new scoring version reset the main independent leaderboard, a high-scoring open-weight model now runs in standard software, and another has promised its weights within days. On the hardest tasks, closed models still score well above anything you can download.

Week to 31 Oct 2026By ISD Insights Team
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Highlights

What it means for business
  • Check which index version a vendor is quoting: v4 and v5 scores do not compare.
  • Running a high-scoring model in-house is now simpler, but it still needs server-class hardware.
  • Before planning on any new model, read the licence and check your contract obligations.

Scores: a new baseline

Artificial Analysis, an independent benchmarking firm, moved to version 5 of its Intelligence Index on 27 October, relying mostly on private tests. Scores quoted before that date do not compare with today's, so ask which version a vendor is citing. Read more: New scoring resets the Artificial Analysis leaderboard.

Running models yourself

DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 now runs in mainline llama.cpp, so it no longer needs patched or third-party builds, which are harder to maintain and to trust. At about 500 GB for the Quantisation: Storing a model's numbers at lower precision (for example 4-bit) so it needs less memory. Glossary download, it is a server-class deployment. Running the weights locally sends no prompts or data to the lab that built them. Read more: DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 now runs in mainline llama.cpp and AI hardware for on-premises use.

Licences and contracts

Kimi K3.1 Pro's licence is not yet published, so for most businesses the first question is the terms, not whether it can run. Organisations with US federal contracts should also check their obligations before choosing a model: the US has ordered DeepSeek off federal civilian IT systems. Read more: Kimi K3.1 Pro and US orders DeepSeek off federal civilian IT systems. Each model's origin is listed in the Open-weight model tracker so you can apply your own policy.

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