China’s Z.ai Confirms Ox Alpha Is New GLM Model and Plans to Release Weights

China’s Z.ai, also known as Zhipu, has been identified as the maker of Ox Alpha, a free AI model that quickly climbed to the top of online usage and benchmark charts. The company confirmed that Ox Alpha is a new version of its GLM series and said it would release the model’s weights, which would let developers inspect, adapt, and build on the system more easily. The disclosure matters because Ox Alpha had appeared as a mysterious high-performing model and is now emerging as a direct rival to leading AI offerings, including DeepSeek.