Cisco Launches Low-Cost AI Models for Source Code Security

Cisco has released Antares, a small language model (SLM, a lightweight AI trained to do specific tasks efficiently) designed to help security teams find known vulnerabilities in source code quickly and affordably. Unlike expensive large language models (LLMs, general-purpose AIs) or cheaper open-weight models that produce many false alarms, Antares combines low cost with accuracy while keeping code data within a company's systems for regulatory compliance. Cisco tested Antares against competing models and found it works 172 times cheaper than a leading closed LLM while maintaining similar accuracy.