Thinking Machines Lab Releases Inkling 2 Small Scoring 31 on Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
What happened
Thinking Machines Lab launched Inkling 2 Small on November 5, 2026, delivering a second-generation Mixture-of-Experts architecture that scored 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v5.0).
The Context
- Efficiency drives the build: The architecture operates with 594 billion total parameters but activates only 17 billion per query, processing up to a 1 million token context window across both text and image inputs.
- Enterprise-focused pricing: Access opens via the Tinker platform at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.00 per million output tokens, positioning it directly against alternatives like Gemini 3.8 Flash.
- Open-source trajectory: While currently deployed with closed weights, Thinking Machines Lab plans an eventual Apache 2.0 release once external safety evaluations conclude.
The Number
— The model's score on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v5.0), establishing it as a top-performing planned open-weights system developed outside China.
Takeaway
As external safety audits conclude, the forthcoming Apache 2.0 release will signal whether your engineering teams can reliably host frontier-level agentic tools on private infrastructure.
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