The Beast (language model)
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| Developer | H&A |
|---|---|
| Trained with | Parsec (Lumen) |
| Parameters | about 10 trillion |
| Architecture | Dense, with routed blocks |
| Users | H&A divisions; joint H&A-EF command |
| Licence | Proprietary |
| In operation | Since 2025 |
The Beast is the common name for a proprietary artificial intelligence model operated by H&A. It has about 10 trillion parameters, and is used internally by H&A's divisions and by the European Federation, chiefly to read the signals of the Dispatcher network. It has not been released outside H&A and the Federation, and runs only in a few heavily guarded data centres, each of which it occupies entirely. It is trained with Parsec, an unreleased model of Lumen's.
Name
"The Beast" is a nickname, used by H&A staff, by the joint command and in the press. H&A's own designation for the model has not been published. The name refers to its size and to the data centres it fills.
Architecture
About 8 trillion of the model's parameters are for vocabulary and decoding. A separate block decodes the signals of the Dispatcher network. A further block of about 500 billion parameters is described by H&A as "prediction" weights.
The model is not a mixture of experts. Its main weights are dense, and every input passes through all of them. Certain inputs are also routed to further blocks, which are active only for those inputs and are far more expensive to run per token than the rest of the model.
The Dispatcher block reads symbol strings transcribed from intercepted signals, and has no language on its input side. Its output is in the categories of the annotations it was trained on, with a confidence figure for each reading.
Training
The Beast is trained by H&A with Parsec, an internal model of Lumen's Lumi family that has not been released to the public. Parsec prepares the training data, including the correction of the annotated intercepts on which the Dispatcher block is trained, and evaluates each new version of the model. The Dispatcher block is retrained continuously, as the signals of the network drift and its accuracy falls without retraining.
Operation
The Beast runs in a few data centres operated by H&A, whose locations are classified. Each holds a single copy of the model and runs nothing else, and each draws about 300 megawatts. The data centres have priority on the power grid as critical infrastructure and are guarded by H&A Security. H&A spends several billion euros a year on the model and its data centres, and has defended the cost on the ground that each gain in the accuracy of its readings is measured in lives.
The Beast cannot be addressed directly. Other H&A models take its output, in an internal representation or in plain language, and work out what each reading means for the front concerned and how it should be acted on. The results reach the joint H&A-EF command as intercept reports.
Dispatcher signals
Dispatcher signals follow no fixed code and change over time. The Dispatcher block was trained on intercepted signals paired with observers' notes on what the parasites did next. Its readings are limited to the kinds of meaning those observers recorded, and each is given with a confidence figure. It is the largest decoder in operation, and the source from which the smaller signal readers H&A licenses to other companies, among them Lumen, are distilled.
History
H&A developed AI models before 2020. Its public-facing models were shut down by the Federation over safety concerns, and it continues to develop models for internal use. H&A's first Dispatcher decoders entered military use in 2023 as separate models. The Beast entered operation in 2025, with the main decoder moved into it as a block. H&A disclosed the model's size and the sizes of its blocks to the European Parliament's defence committee in 2026, and the figures were published.
Criticism
The Beast's intercept reports give a confidence figure beside each reading, including readings that inform casualty estimates, and critics have pointed out that a figure drawn from stale or unusual traffic reads the same as one drawn from familiar traffic. Its cost, its classified locations and the share of the Federation's computing capacity and power it takes have also been criticised. The Dispatcher block is sometimes confused with the organism of the same name.