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The fastest model is the smartest model because speed compounds into capability at every stage — a faster model trains on more data, post-trains across more environments, and thinks longer on hard problems at the same cost.

Bryan argues that pursuing speed and pursuing the frontier are the same goal: a faster model trains on more data in the same time, practices in more environments during post-training, and allocates more inference compute to hard problems, making speed compound into capability. ✦ AI generated

Bryan Catanzaro · ByteByteGo Newsletter · 2026-07-27 · original ↗

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The fastest model is the smartest model. A faster model can be trained on more data in the same amount of time. It can be post-trained across more environments. Once deployed, it can think for longer on a hard problem at the same cost. So speed translates into capability and compounds at every stage.

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supports → A hybrid architecture combining Mamba state-space layers with attention layers and mixture-of-experts makes models both fast and capable — Mamba provides efficient global context at linear cost, attention supplies pinpoint recall, and MoE gives large total capacity at low per-token cost.Bryan Catanzaro · ByteByteGo Newsletter