A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has sparked speculation in some parts of the internet about who actually built it.
The free model was released on OpenRouter on Thursday and was described as “an inference model designed for coding, persistent agent work, and production workloads.” Regarding X, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison (whose company plans to acquire OpenRouter) called Ox Alpha “very impressive.”
So who is actually behind Ox Alpha? The OpenRouter listing described it as a “stealth model” and said it was “developed and operated by a third-party provider who has chosen to remain anonymous during this preview.”
Unsurprisingly, much of the speculation revolves around China. AI analyst Andrew Curran posted on Friday that while initial speculation focused on the GLM model developed by Chinese company Z.ai, “this morning people don’t seem to be sure of anything.”
Similarly, a Wccftech article initially suggested that evidence pointed to GLM, but an update suggests Ox Alpha may be an unreleased version of Microsoft MAI. And while at least one post on Reddit declared that Ox Alpha “couldn’t be Chinese,” others expressed a “strong belief” that he was, in fact, Chinese.
