A new way of measuring AI models suggests China's threat to OpenAI and Anthropic may have been overblown

The DeepSeek logo on a smartphone Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Chinese AI models have fallen sharply behind American rivals in a closely watched ranking, raising fresh questions about whether the threat from cheaper, freely available AI technology has been exaggerated.

Artificial Analysis, a prominent independent firm that measures AI performance, recently overhauled its testing system to better reflect how people actually use the technology.

One crucial change: Many of the tests are now kept secret, making it harder for AI companies to train their models specifically to perform well on them.

The results were striking.

Artificial Analysis said the best so-called open-weight AI models had trailed the overall leader by just three points under the previous system.…