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Comment by simonw | Hacker News Reader

> Today, we are officially releasing Qwen 3.8-Max, the most capable model in the Qwen family to date. This also marks the first time we will open-source the weights of a Qwen-Max-class model — the open weights will be released next week.

I don't understand. That's dated today, but:

https://twitter.com/alibaba_qwen/status/2078759124914098291

> Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon! [...] You don't have to wait to test it. Just now, the Qwen3.8-Max-Preview made its debut on Alibaba’s Token Plan, Qoder, and QoderWork.

That was on July 19th. I used it to draw this pelican: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/20/afraid-of-chinese-mode...

So what are they releasing today?

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July 19th post mentions “Max-Preview” vs. today’s post dropping the “Preview”. Unclear what changed if anything though.. Maybe broader availability or it’s a slightly improved checkpoint

My understanding is that these "preview" models are usually earlier RL checkpoints, and that "official release" happens when they're happy with the training run?

I believe they mentioned around the preview announcement that they'd be releasing improvements to capability, which I assume means continued training.

In Qwen's case, both 3.8 Max releases seem rushed may be in response to Kimi K3 getting all that attention.

3.8 Max Preview ran 90% discount on QwenCloud exactly as when Moonshot couldn't keep up with all the signups.

... other comments were right, this is the full qwen3.8-max model, two weeks ago was the qwen3.8-max-preview release.

Here's a pelican I just got out of the new model. It took 11 minutes and forgot the wheels! https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer#url=ht... (scroll to bottom)

The reasoning trace is pretty great:

> More additions: basket with fish in it? Cute detail — a fish poking out of a basket on the handlebars! This adds charm and pelican context.

If the price is $2/$6 that cost me 17 cents: https://www.llm-prices.com/#it=90&ot=29734&ic=2&oc=6

Wow, bike geometry is really good! Except for the missing wheels lol

Do pelican bikes need wheels? They've got wings, after all... I think Qwen is on to something here.

It's because of the basket with the fish. like ET, fishy fishy sail home.

And what if his name is Marty?

It gave the svg for the wheels in the reasoning trace then forgot to include them in its final answer. Lol.

It has a "definition" for wheel in SVG inside <defs>, but did not use it in the picture.

K3 also forgot the wheels when I tried it, but it turned out to be a bug in llama-server's built-in SVG viewer. I know you have your own rasterizer but just FYI, sometimes it isn't the model's fault.

they releasing Max.

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