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International Business Times
International Business Times
Technology

Ox Alpha Emerged as a Powerful OpenAI Rival—Then China's Z.ai Was Revealed as Its Creator

Ox Alpha is challenging OpenAI with powerful AI, but its creator remains a mystery

Ox Alpha appeared on OpenRouter on 20 August as an anonymous AI model, initially leaving developers without a clear indication of who had created it. The model was listed as a stealth system developed and operated by a third-party provider that chose to remain anonymous during its preview.

The mystery did not last. On 26 August, Chinese AI company Z.ai confirmed that Ox Alpha was an anonymous preview of its GLM-5.3-Flash model. Z.ai said the stealth release allowed it to gather user feedback before the model's official release.

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