NexEcosystem reveals that the viral Rio 3.5 model is actually a direct merge of their open-source Nex N2 Pro model.

// 1h agoNEWS

NexEcosystem reveals that the viral Rio 3.5 model is actually a direct merge of their open-source Nex N2 Pro model.

The municipal IT company of Rio de Janeiro, IplanRIO, released the Rio 3.5 model as a high-performance, homegrown open-weights model. However, NexEcosystem and independent AI researchers discovered that the model is actually a linear weight merge comprising roughly 60% Nex N2 Pro and 40% Qwen 3.5. When stripped of its system prompts, Rio 3.5 even identifies itself as Nex N2 Pro, sparking community debate over "AI washing" versus the collaborative spirit of open-source model merging.

// ANALYSIS

Rebranding merged weights as a "homegrown frontier model" is a classic example of AI washing, showing that the industry needs stricter standards for model provenance.

* Weight merging is an incredibly powerful and legitimate technique, but transparency and proper attribution are essential to maintain community trust.

* The model calling itself Nex N2 Pro under the hood demonstrates a lack of thorough alignment or distillation after merging.

* This incident sets a precedent for how municipalities and organizations might seek local prestige by dressing up global open-source projects.

// TAGS

rio-3.5nex-ecosystemnex-n2-promodel-mergeai-washingopen-source

DISCOVERED

1h ago

2026-06-14

PUBLISHED

1h ago

2026-06-14

RELEVANCE

7/ 10

AUTHOR

steipete

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