Topic

What Makes a Foundation Model for the Agent Era?

The capability ceiling of agents is fundamentally determined by the underlying foundation model. Drawing on practical experience from the OpenClaw ecosystem, this talk breaks down three core requirements for foundation models in the agent era—intelligence, focus, and efficiency. It also shares insights from StepFun’s Step-3.5 Flash on building agent-native foundation models, offering perspectives on how to design models that better support complex, real-world agentic applications.