The AI race is back on
Last week, Anthropic and OpenAI looked like they had the AI race to themselves, pulling ahead with increasingly powerful models that left their rivals in the dust. Google seemed hopelessly far behind, while Meta, despite spending billions to revive its floundering AI ambitions, had yet to establish itself as a serious contender. Even the latest models coming out of China, impressive as they were, appeared to be…
Key points
- Google released Gemini 4 Argon, claiming it matches or beats OpenAI and Anthropic models.
- Meta launched Muse Wonder Full, its first model at the AI frontier.
- Google priced Argon up to 80 percent below rivals during its introductory period.
Google and Meta each released new frontier AI models within days of one another, according to The Verge, ending the period when Anthropic and OpenAI appeared to have the race to themselves. Google introduced Gemini 4 Argon on Tuesday, while Meta released Muse Wonder Full on Monday.
Both companies claim their models can compete with the best from OpenAI and Anthropic on numerous benchmarks. The releases mark Google's return to the front rank and Meta's first arrival there.
Google's Gemini 4 Argon
Google had looked like it lost its place among AI front-runners. Since releasing Gemini 3 late last year, it delivered mainly incremental improvements. Internal changes added to the impression of retreat: veteran executive Jeff Dean left with other AI researchers to start a new company, Demis Hassabis stepped back from day-to-day leadership of DeepMind, and other AI teams were moved into Google proper.
Gemini 4 Argon, which Google says matches or beats flagship OpenAI and Anthropic models on many benchmarks, reversed that narrative. Google priced Argon aggressively, undercutting rivals by as much as 80 percent per token during its introductory period, and still significantly cheaper afterward.
it would be incredibly foolish to count either of them out
— The Verge
Meta reaches the frontier
Meta had never established itself as a frontier contender despite heavy spending. Last year it overhauled its AI operations, spending billions on talent and infrastructure, including Scale AI and cofounder Alexandr Wang. In April, its Superintelligence Labs released Muse Spark, which was impressive but not quite frontier.
On Monday, Meta unveiled Muse Wonder Full. According to company testing, it can compete with OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra and Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1 on numerous benchmarks. The article says Meta has finally arrived at the AI frontier.
