The popular testing platform within the artificial intelligence industry continues to evolve. The Chatbot Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking platform, has become a crucial testing ground for AI models. Today, it announced the establishment of a new company called Arena Intelligence Inc., branded as LMArena.
Key Highlights:
- Rebranded as LMArena, with plans to expand functionality while maintaining neutrality
- Currently attracts one million visitors monthly who rank AI models in head-to-head comparisons
- Led by researchers from UC Berkeley, now transitioning into corporate roles
Launched in early 2023 as a small research project at UC Berkeley's Sky Computing Lab, it has grown into a significant force in AI evaluation, drawing one million monthly visitors who compare models in direct competition. The platform’s leaderboard has become an important indicator of model quality within the industry.
The new company will be led by the original project team: Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang—both recent postdoctoral researchers at Berkeley—and their advisor Ion Stoica, a prominent figure in cloud computing and co-founder of Databricks and Anyscale. While specific roles are still being finalized, the goal is clear: scale the platform, address long-standing usability issues, and develop new features based on community feedback.
The platform holds a unique position in the AI ecosystem by providing neutral, user-driven evaluations of model capabilities. Many leading AI developers, including OpenAI, use the Chatbot Arena to test new models before wider releases. This neutrality appears central to the team’s vision for the company’s future.
"LMArena will remain true to its original mission. It will continue to serve as a neutral, open platform for testing and evaluating AI models," the team wrote in their announcement. "Our leaderboard will never favor (or oppose) any provider and will faithfully reflect our community’s preferences by design."
To this end, the team launched a beta version of the website at beta.lmarena.ai, featuring improved speed, mobile experience, and voting clarity—common complaints from long-time users. Features like login, chat history, and personalized leaderboards are coming soon, along with new experimental spaces such as WebDev Arena and RepoChat Arena.
The company has yet to determine its business model, though one option under consideration is charging providers for model evaluations. Stoica confirmed they plan to raise funds to support growth but declined to disclose details about financing.
For everyday AI users and professionals interested in AI, the platform offers a rare opportunity to directly compare leading systems without marketing influence—judging which models perform best in real-world scenarios through simple voting.
With funding flowing into the new company, the question remains whether Arena Intelligence can maintain its academic neutrality while building a sustainable business. For now, the team emphasizes transparency and community trust as core values, recognizing that credibility is their most valuable asset.
