The AI hype gap is real — here's the data behind it

We've been tracking 571+ AI companies across 200+ data sources for months. One pattern keeps showing up: the companies with the most press coverage are often not the ones with the most actual technical output. We call it the hype/reality gap. What is the hype/reality gap? It measures the ratio between a company's press coverage volume and its actual technical output — GitHub commits, arXiv research papers, versioned product releases, and community engagement. The result is a score that tells you whether a company is shipping or just announcing . 🏆 = significantly under-hyped (more reality than hype) ✅ = balanced ⚠️ = moderate hype gap 🤡 = significant hype gap (way more press than actual output) This week's data Biggest momentum move: Thinking Machines Lab jumped +597 places in 7 days — from rank #660 to #63 — on just 6 tracked mentions. What makes this signal interesting: those 6 mentions were all substantive technical coverage from independent publishers, not PR announcements. That pa