I've spent some time with Fable, and it is really good, definitely a step change from Opus 4.8, both for coding and general chat-style discussions. The vibes are incredible. There is an ease with which it solves problems and I've tested by replicating older chats in Fable - things that the older models found after 5-6 turns, Fable surfaces in the first response. It just gets things.

Apart from all the above: the fact that they are intentionally writing this (that they degrade frontier LLM dev, silently vs loudly for biology/cybersecurity) in the system card is interesting to say the least - especially just before IPO.

Notice that with this statement - that they're going to intentionally hobble the model for frontier LLM development - the general discussion has moved from, “Is the model actually that good?” to "they’re pulling the ladder up from behind them"

That's actually super smart - wonder if Mythos (or the next unreleased model) had a say in coming up with that strategy (if it's intentional). Also - having access to extremely capable models before anyone else - which they have by default - is a incredibly advantageous position to be in.