The Number
- DeepSeek-flash sits at $0.15/M input cache-miss off-peak, half that on cache hit, per DeepSeek's pricing docs as of 2026-09-20.
- Qwen3-max runs 2.5 yuan/M input at 0-32K tokens on Alibaba's DashScope, its cheapest tier, per Aliyun pricing as of 2026-09-20.
- StepFun's Step 5 Preview scores 44 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, third among open models, company-stated, per 智东西 2026-09-20.
Top of the Fold
- StepFun ships Step 5 Preview, a 600B-parameter MoE with 27B active and a 1M-token window, priced against DeepSeek-V4-Pro with weights promised for Oct 15, per 智东西.
- SiliconFlow closes B+ second tranche and a C round, pushing near 2.9B yuan raised in 2026 as it presses its Hong Kong 18C filing, per 智东西.
- Zhipu ships Kimi K3 as Moonshot's new flagship, live on the platform pricing page with K3-series cache tiers, per Moonshot's pricing docs.
- CapCut breaks its wall between AI video generation and AI editing with 剪映Hub and the 小映 assistant, its bid to keep creators inside one workflow, per 量子位.
Untranslated
- 稚晖君's Qiyuan drops two home robots, Q1 at 19,999 yuan and T1 from the same base, both open for order and shipping Oct 1, aiming consumer robots at ten-thousand-yuan price points, per 智东西.
- 乐享科技 claims Aether, billed as the first embodied model that keeps updating during deployment, and ran an outdoor live demo taking random barbecue orders, a self-evolution claim the field is treating cautiously, per 极客公园.
- A Renmin University team writes ad auctions into token generation, bidding on every generated token as LLMs eat the search ad slot, a preprint-stage design, per PaperWeekly.
- ICLR 2027 submission numbers cross 60,000, with one conference's intake topping every prior edition combined and reviewers stretched thin, per PaperWeekly.
The Backstory
- 英矽智能 founder Alex Zhavoronkov tells 极客公园 he publishes a paper every six days, and its AI-designed drug rentosertib turned back six biological aging clocks by 3 to 4 years in 42 patients averaging 67, now in Phase III, per 极客公园.
The Kicker
- Taobao Instant's city-courier uniform wins the top gold at the 2026 French Design Award in Paris, the first time the prize went to frontline-worker workwear, designed by an all-amateur team, per 雷峰网.
