State of AI report returns for its ninth year with Anthropic atop the benchmarks

The State of AI Report is back for its ninth edition. This year’s version frames the frontier of artificial intelligence as a three-horse race between Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. Leading that pack, at least on the scoreboard the report chose to use, is Anthropic. What the 2026 report covers The report was published on October 8, 2026, by Nathan Benaich of Air Street Capital. It is an independent annual review that has run every year since its debut in 2018. Its scope is broad. The report tracks developments across AI research, industry, geopolitics, safety, and policy. To rank the leading models, this year’s edition pulls benchmark data from Artificial Analysis and its Intelligence Index. The report draws on versions v4.1 through v4.3 of that index, which focus on agentic workloads. On those measures, the report places Anthropic in the lead on the Intelligence Index. OpenAI and Google round out what the report characterizes as the competitive frontier. The four big themes Beyond the leaderboard, the report highlights four themes that its authors see shaping the field. AI helping build AI. The first is the growing role AI plays in its own development. Models are increasingly part...