There’s a big misconception about how GLM 5.2 was trained. Yes, they distilled Claude and GPT 5.5 — but distillation is not how they matched Opus quality. Distillation only fixed the cold start problem in RL.
RLing an agentic coding model isn’t rocket science. In simplified terms:
1. RL needs trajectories — rollouts where the model actually completed a task in some env
2. No successful trajectory on a task = zero gradient = you can’t RL it. This is the cold start problem
3. Distillation solves it. You seed your model with knowledge from a smarter one (Claude, GPT) on tasks it can’t do yet
4. Now it produces positive trajectories on those tasks
5. RL on those trajectories and hill climb agentic coding
6. At that point you no longer need to distill and can solely hill climb RL to better models
This is an interesting curve. I’d argue it’s harder to get to Opus 4.8 from scratch than to go from Opus 4.8 → Fable/Mythos tier.
GLM 5.2 is already producing positive trajectories, so they have plenty to RL on — they’ll keep climbing to Mythos quality without distilling any further. They no longer need American models.
Read the full analysis on how the escalating geopolitical battle over robotics is forcing a shift in Western hardware rollout strategies:
https://t.co/RtFBPh4vCk
@Oscarrjavier95 After watching this video, you'll understand why China doesn't use Google anymore. I'm honestly worried sick for the countries that still use Google.
Eric Schmidt saying the quiet part out loud: "What I don't like about [China's AI] is that it's all open source which means it's largely uncontrolled and not controlled in any way by us."
He adds, "if that makes you feel any better," that only 2 or 3 countries can be independent AI powers.
In other words, it's all about hegemony: the ideal scenario is a world where AI is controlled by the US - and the fewer countries that can resist that, the better.
Src for the video: https://t.co/Gk5iAMtBqa
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France. She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!). She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!! President DJT
( TS: Jun 20 2026, 8:24 AM ET )
Everyone benchmarks GLM-5.2 against the frontier now. So we did too.
We pulled GLM-5.2's plan up against Claude Fable 5's, the plan that won our last frontier round. Same prompt, same task, same rubric.
Fable scored 9.1. GLM-5.2 scored 9.0.
i keep hearing about how GLM-5.2 not only is great at coding but also that is on Opus 4.8 level when it comes to front end design
I wanted to find out so... i put it to the test..
you can be the judge
This model is insane at design.
I asked GLM 5.2 (left) and Opus 4.8 (right) to build me a landing page and you can't even tell the difference.
GLM cost $0.06 while opus cost $0.49. More than 6x cheaper while being faster + more token efficient.
Another win for open source AI.
Le Président Trump a signé ce soir à Versailles l’accord entre l’Iran et les États-Unis.
Cet accord ouvre la voie à une paix durable et permet la réouverture du détroit d’Ormuz.
C’est un pas important dans la bonne direction pour nos compatriotes qui permettra d’obtenir bientôt une baisse des prix de l’énergie.
Le Président Trump a signé ce soir à Versailles l’accord entre l’Iran et les États-Unis.
Cet accord ouvre la voie à une paix durable et permet la réouverture du détroit d’Ormuz.
C’est un pas important dans la bonne direction pour nos compatriotes qui permettra d’obtenir bientôt une baisse des prix de l’énergie.