AI Explained: GPT-5.5 Arrives, DeepSeek V4 Drops, and the Compute War Intensifies — Competitive Analysis

AI Explained·medium signal

AI Explained breaks down the current frontier model landscape: GPT-5.5 Instant (52.5% fewer hallucinations than GPT-5.3 Instant), DeepSeek V4-Pro (1.6T total/49B active params, ~7x cheaper than GPT-5.5 at $0.145/M input tokens), and the emerging compute war dynamics. The pricing gap between open and closed models is the builder-relevant signal — V4-Pro matches frontier quality at a fraction of the cost for many tasks.