Rio 3.5 Open 397B: Rio's AI Rivals ChatGPT & Claude

Rio de Janeiro has launched an advanced artificial intelligence model called Rio 3.5 Open 397B. This AI, with 397 billion parameters, is already outperforming some top large language models globally. Here's the thing: It was developed by IplanRIO, a municipal IT company. They made the model available on Hugging Face under an MIT license. What's interesting is its strong performance in benchmarks, where it surpassed several open-source models like DeepSeek V4 and even older versions of ChatGPT and Claude. The model is built on Alibaba's Qwen 3.5-397B-A17B. Instead of starting from scratch, IplanRIO fine-tuned an existing Qwen model, adding its own optimizations and a reasoning framework called SwiReasoning. This approach contrasts with the recent US ban on foreigners using certain Anthropic AI models. The bottom line is this launch could signal a shift in AI development, making advanced AI more accessible for governments and organizations.