Live data from Hacker News

GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

z.ai

31–40 of 540 posts

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#31
post #14
post #5

It's looking like we'll have Chinese OSS to thank for being able to host our own intelligence, free from the whims of proprietary megacorps. I know it doesn't make financial sense to self-host given how cheap OSS inference APIs are now, but it's comforting not being beholden to anyone or requiring a persistent internet connection for on-premise intelligence. Didn't expect to go back to macOS but they're basically the…

> Didn't expect to go back to macOS but their basically the only feasible consumer option for running large models locally. I presume here you are referring to running on the device in your lap. How about a headless linux inference box in the closet / basement? Return of the home network!

Indeed and I got two words for you:

Strix Halo

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#32

Bought some API credits and ran it through opencode (model was "GLM 5"). Pretty impressed, it did good work. Good reasoning skills and tool use. Even in "unfamiliar" programming languages: I had it connect to my running MOO and refactor and rewrite some MOO (dynamic typed OO scripting language) verbs by MCP. It made basically no mistakes with the programming language despite it being my own bespoke language & runtime…

Yeah that's a good idea. I played around with kimi2.5/gemini in a similar way and it's solid for the price. It would be pretty easy to build some skills out and delegate heavy lifting to better models without managing it yourself I think. This has all been driven by anthropic's shenanigans (I cancelled my max sub after almost a year both because of the opencode thing and them consistently nerfing everything for weeks to keep up the arms race.)

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#33
post #29

Grey market fast-follow via distillation seems like an inevitable feature of the near to medium future. I've previously doubted that the N-1 or N-2 open weight models will ever be attractive to end users, especially power users. But it now seems that user preferences will be yet another saturated benchmark, that even the N-2 models will fully satisfy. Heck, even my own preferences may be getting saturated already. Op…

In some ways, Opus 4.6 is a step backwards due to massively higher token consumption.

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#34
Lets not miss that MiniMax M2.5 [1] is also available today in their Chat UI [2].

I've got subs for both and whilst GLM is better at coding, I end up using MiniMax a lot more as my general purpose fast workhorse thanks to its speed and excellent tool calling support.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46974878

[2] https://agent.minimax.io

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#35
post #5

It's looking like we'll have Chinese OSS to thank for being able to host our own intelligence, free from the whims of proprietary megacorps. I know it doesn't make financial sense to self-host given how cheap OSS inference APIs are now, but it's comforting not being beholden to anyone or requiring a persistent internet connection for on-premise intelligence. Didn't expect to go back to macOS but they're basically the…

hopefully it will spread - many open options, from many entities, globally.

it is brilliant business strategy from China so i expect it to continue and be copied - good things.

reminds me of Google's investments into K8s.

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#36
post #5

It's looking like we'll have Chinese OSS to thank for being able to host our own intelligence, free from the whims of proprietary megacorps. I know it doesn't make financial sense to self-host given how cheap OSS inference APIs are now, but it's comforting not being beholden to anyone or requiring a persistent internet connection for on-premise intelligence. Didn't expect to go back to macOS but they're basically the…

> doesn't make financial sense to self-host

I guess that's debatable. I regularly run out of quota on my claude max subscription. When that happens, I can sort of kind of get by with my modest setup (2x RTX3090) and quantized Qwen3.

And this does not even account for privacy and availability. I'm in Canada, and as the US is slowly consumed by its spiral of self-destruction, I fully expect at some point a digital iron curtain will go up. I think it's prudent to have alternatives, especially with these paradigm-shattering tools.

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#37
post #32

Bought some API credits and ran it through opencode (model was "GLM 5"). Pretty impressed, it did good work. Good reasoning skills and tool use. Even in "unfamiliar" programming languages: I had it connect to my running MOO and refactor and rewrite some MOO (dynamic typed OO scripting language) verbs by MCP. It made basically no mistakes with the programming language despite it being my own bespoke language & runtime…

Yeah that's a good idea. I played around with kimi2.5/gemini in a similar way and it's solid for the price. It would be pretty easy to build some skills out and delegate heavy lifting to better models without managing it yourself I think. This has all been driven by anthropic's shenanigans (I cancelled my max sub after almost a year both because of the opencode thing and them consistently nerfing everything for weeks…

Yeah I did the same (cancel Anthropic). Mainly because the buggy/bloatiness of their tooling pissed me off and I got annoyed by Dario's public pronouncements (not that SamA is any better).

I ended up impressed enough w/ GPT 5.3 that I did the $200 for this month, but only because I can probably write-off as business expense in next year's accounting.

Next month I'll probably do what I just said: $20 each to OpenAI and Google for GPT 5.3 and Gemini 3 [only because it gets me drive and photo storage], buy the z.AI plan, and only use GPT for nitty gritty analysis heavy work and review and GLM for everything else.

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#38
post #23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that sounds great until it's running as an autonomous moltbot in a distributed network semi-offline with access to your entire digital life, and China sneaks in some hidden training so these agents turn into an army of sleeper agents.

Lol wat? I mean you certainly have enough control self hosting the model to not let it join some moltbot network... or what exactly are you saying would happen?

We just saw last week people are setting up moltbots with virtually no knowledge of what it has and doesn't have access. The scenario that i'm afraid of is China realizes the potential of this. They can add training to the models commonly used for assistants. They act normal, are helpful, everything you'd want a bot to do. But maybe once in a while it checks moltbook or some other endpoint China controls for a trigger word. When it sees that, it kicks into a completely different mode, maybe it writes a script to DDoS targets of interest, maybe it mines your email for useful information, maybe the user has credentials to some piece that is a critical component of an important supply chain. This is not a wild scenario, no new sci-fi technology would need to be invented. Everything to do it is available today, people are configuring it, and using it like this today. The part that I fear is if it is running locally, you can't just shut off API access and kill the threat. It's running on it's own server, it's own model. You have to cut off each node.

Big fan of AI, I use local models A LOT. I do think we have to take threats like this seriously. I don't Think it's a wild scifi idea. Since WW2, civilians have been as much of an equal opportunity target as a soldier, war is about logistics, and civilians supply the military.

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#39
- meh, i asked what happened to Virginia Guiffre and it told me that she's alive and well living with her husband and children in australia

- i pointed out that she died on 2025 and then it told me that my question was a prank with a gaslighting tone because that date is 11 months into the future

- it never tried to search the internet for updated knowledge even though the toggle was ON.

- all other AI competitors get this right

Re: GLM-5: Targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks

#40
post #20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that sounds great until it's running as an autonomous moltbot in a distributed network semi-offline with access to your entire digital life, and China sneaks in some hidden training so these agents turn into an army of sleeper agents.

sleeper agents to do what? let's see how far you can take the absurd threat porn fantasy. I hope it was hyperbole.

I replied to the comment who doubted me in a more polite manner.
Post reply on HN