Skip to main content

Russian Experts Taught AI Models to Talk to Each Other Without Words

A startup called Mostik has a wild new approach to combining the capabilities of AI models that could have huge implications for frontier labs like Anthropic or OpenAI. For more like this, subscribe to Will Knight’s “AI Lab” newsletter.

Released on 09/04/2026

Transcript

Russian mathematicians have taught AI models how to talk

to each other without using words.

Now, this idea is pretty wild,

so bear with me while I explain it,

and stick around to learn

what guessing the weight of a pig has to do with it all.

I recently met with a brilliant Russian mathematician

who showed me a way for artificial intelligence models

to communicate via something

that kind of seems like machine telepathy.

The mathematician works for a startup called Mostik,

the Russian word for bridge.

This is apt because Mostik's new approach allows different

AI models to interact using the mathematical values

found in their weights, the things that determine

how a prompt gets turned into an output.

What this means is, for the first time ever,

the capabilities of a large model can be fed

into a smaller one to ramp up its capabilities

much more efficiently.

A Mostik model is currently top

of a notoriously difficult competition

for AI models called ARC-AGI-3.

They've also demonstrated the idea by creating a bridge

between two Chinese open weight models.

The resulting hybrid costs a fraction of the larger model,

and its performance is exactly halfway between the two.

Sasha Malysheva, Mostik's CEO, told me over coffee

that an ensemble of AI models is known

to perform better than a larger one.

She also likened it to the idea that a handful

of random people can accurately guess the weight

of a pig more easily than an expert

when their guesses are averaged.

Confused? The bottom line is that combining the outputs

of several AI models often results in better results,

but it can be expensive

and a lengthy process to feed the output

of one model into another.

Mostik says it's figured out a way for AI models to talk

to one another without producing text.

If this takes off, it could make open weight models more

attractive and valuable

and allow them to compete with the closed proprietary ones

offered by frontier Labs like Anthropic and OpenAI.

For more like this, subscribe to my newsletter,

[email protected]/newsletters.