AI this week: Xiaomi leads open models, voice agents, and AI training comes to Tagbilaran schools
Xiaomi’s MiMo-V2.6 tops the open-weights rankings, Google ships live voice models, DeepSeek cuts memory and prices, and DepEd Tagbilaran circulates an AI skills program.
October 2, 2026 · By Bohol AI
A phone maker took the lead in open models, voice agents got a major upgrade, and AI skills training reached Tagbilaran’s schools.
Close to home: AI training for Tagbilaran schools
On September 29, the Schools Division of Tagbilaran City posted Division Memorandum No. 821, s. 2026, on an AI training program from Hapinoy (At1ndahan Inc.). In it, Hapinoy proposes “AI Can Work”, a practical AI skills training program. Teachers and school staff can find the details in the memo on the division’s website.
Xiaomi’s MiMo-V2.6
Xiaomi, best known for phones and electric cars, released MiMo-V2.6-Pro-RL, now the highest-scoring open-weights model on Artificial Analysis’ intelligence index. It performs about as well as GPT-6 Sol at a lower cost per task. Xiaomi also released a smaller Flash version and a 9-billion-parameter model distilled from MiMo’s outputs.
Gemini 3.8 Live
Google launched Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, speech-to-speech models for real-time voice agents. The first is built for scale and low cost, the second for harder tasks, and both aim to cut the delay before a reply.
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash
DeepSeek released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash with a redesigned architecture that uses far less memory per token of context, which it says is now a bigger cost than the computing itself when agents call tools repeatedly. It also cut its API prices.
What it means for Bohol
- Teachers in Tagbilaran: check DM No. 821 for the AI Can Work program details.
- Voice agents that answer in real time could take phone bookings for resorts and tour operators. Test them on local accents first.
- Open models from unexpected companies keep improving and getting cheaper to run.
Sources
- Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.6
- Google: Gemini 3.8 Live
- DeepSeek: V4.1-Flash release notes
- DepEd Tagbilaran: DM No. 821, s. 2026, Hapinoy AI training program
- Beijing Academy of AI, AREX research agent (arXiv)
- The Batch, issue 373 (DeepLearning.AI)