After two years of quiet development, Thinking Machines Lab has released the Inkling AI model, created by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. The model is now available on OpenRouter, a platform that aggregates multiple AI models for developers. Early reports highlight an impressive MCP score, though the model's price-to-performance ratio is described as complicated.
A Long-Awaited Debut
Mira Murati's departure from OpenAI in 2023 was a major event in the AI industry. She subsequently founded Thinking Machines Lab, but the company remained largely silent about its work. The release of Inkling ends that silence and marks the lab's first major product. The model's arrival on OpenRouter gives the AI community a chance to evaluate it directly.
What the MCP Score Means
The model's MCP score is described as impressive. MCP is a benchmark that measures a model's ability to handle complex, multi-step tasks. While the exact score was not disclosed, the characterization suggests Inkling performs well in this area. However, without comparative figures, it's difficult to gauge how it stacks against other leading models. The impressive score may attract attention from researchers and developers looking for strong reasoning capabilities.
The Complicated Price-to-Performance Equation
On the pricing side, the ratio is considered complicated. This likely means that while the model delivers strong performance on certain metrics, the cost per query or token may be higher than some alternatives, or that the pricing tiers are not straightforward. Users will need to evaluate whether the performance justifies the expense for their specific use cases. The complicated pricing could be a barrier for some potential adopters, especially those with tight budgets.
Availability on OpenRouter
Inkling is available now on OpenRouter, a platform that provides a unified API for accessing various AI models. This makes it easy for developers to experiment with Inkling alongside other models. The release ends a two-year period of silence from the lab, and the AI community will be watching closely to see how the model performs in real-world applications. Developers can start testing the model immediately through OpenRouter's interface.
The lab has not announced any further models or updates, but the release of Inkling suggests that Thinking Machines Lab is now ready to compete in the crowded AI market. The coming weeks will likely see more analysis of the model's capabilities and cost-effectiveness.
