The world of artificial intelligence as we knew it is changing. While the last two years have seen a constant battle over who develops the smartest model, a new phase is now arriving. Giants that previously tried to outperform each other in every benchmark are now standing on the same side. According to information from Seznam Zprávy and Android Magazine, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have decided to join forces to create a digital wall against the illegal copying of their technological intellectual property.

Why are rivals joining forces? The threat of "model copying"

The main reason for this unusual alliance is not an attempt to create a single super-model, but the protection of their investments. In technological circles, the problem of so-called model distillation and direct copying of model weights is increasingly appearing. Chinese companies, such as DeepSeek or various entities under the Alibaba umbrella, are showing extremely rapid progress. However, this progress is often based on using outputs or directly on structures that were developed by Western companies.

This phenomenon could lead to a situation where the technological lead of Western companies quickly disappears, because cheaper and less regulated models from China will offer similar reasoning capabilities at a fraction of the cost. For companies like OpenAI or Anthropic, this is a direct threat to their business model. If their best models become "templates" for thousands of cheaper clones, their ability to generate profit from research will collapse.

Comparison of the main players: Who is leading the race?

To understand what is happening, we must look at the current state of the market. Each of these giants offers specific advantages that have stabilized in recent months (as of April 2026):

• OpenAI (GPT series): The current leader with GPT-5 (or their latest iteration). They excel in complex logical reasoning and programming. 
  Price: ChatGPT Plus costs approximately 20 USD (approx. 460 CZK) per month.
• Google (Gemini): Their biggest advantage is integration into the entire Google Workspace ecosystem and a massive context window (the ability to process millions of tokens at once). 
  Price: Gemini Advanced is part of Google One AI Premium for approximately 20 USD (approx. 460 CZK) per month.
• Anthropic (Claude): Claude 4 models are perceived as the most "human" in writing and tend to have less hallucinating answers, which is key for professional users. 
  Price: Claude Pro costs 20 USD (approx. 460 CZK) per month.

In the area of benchmarks (capability tests), these models are moving on very close boundaries. While in tests like MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding), GPT and Claude models take turns in first place, Google Gemini often wins in tasks requiring analysis of extremely long documents or videos.

Practical impact: What does this mean for you and for Czech companies?

This step has several levels of impact that will be felt even by users in the Czech Republic.

1. Security and protection of intellectual property

For Czech companies that use AI for process automation or data analysis, this alliance is good news. If the giants can effectively defend against the copying of their models, it stabilizes the quality of the services we buy. Fewer "cheap clones" means the market will not be flooded with low-quality models that can be unstable or unsafe from a data security perspective.

2. Regulation and the EU AI Act

In the European context, where the EU AI Act is already fully in force, this alliance can help in complying with strict standards for transparency and security. If these three companies agree on standards for model protection, it can facilitate their certification for the European market. For the Czech user, this means that the tools they use will likely be better in line with European regulations on privacy (GDPR).

3. Availability and Czech language support

It is important to emphasize that all three platforms (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) already have high-level support for Czech. It is no longer just about translations, but about real understanding of the nuances of the Czech language. The alliance of these companies will likely ensure that even in the event of geopolitical tensions, access to these top technologies within the EU and the Czech Republic remains stable.

Sabotaging their own interests?

The headline mentions that these companies are "sabotaging themselves." This refers to the fact that their constant rivalry for every user creates a fragmented market. Each model has different APIs, different prices, and different ways of integration. This increases costs for developers who must maintain multiple different implementations. The alliance against China is therefore an attempt to unify standards, which could lead to greater efficiency, but also to less diversity in the market if these three companies were to become a de facto monopoly.