Ornith-1.5: Open-Source LLM Family (9B Dense to 397B MoE)

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-08-20 · Open on X

Topics: LLM Fundamentals, Industry Trends & Job Market · Level: intermediate

Summary

Ornith-1.5 is a new family of open-source LLMs in three sizes: 9B dense, 35B MoE and 397B MoE. The models were trained with self-improving strategies. Its authors say it is state-of-the-art among open models of similar size and close to Claude Opus. The creator calls it a new model to try.

Key points

• Three sizes: 9B dense, 35B Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) and 397B MoE.
• Trained with self-improving strategies.
• The authors claim state-of-the-art results among open-source models of comparable size.
• The creator says it is comparable to Opus 4.8. Check this against independent benchmarks.

Resources mentioned

• Ornith-1.5 · tool · ornith.ai · free
  Open-source LLM family (9B dense, 35B MoE, 397B MoE) trained with self-improving strategies.

Try this

• Try Ornith-1.5 and compare it with the models you use now.