Models are math functions that predict next word, not conscious beings. If it was trained on dataset including data up to Q1 2025, then that's more or less expected answer -- even Qwen 3 didn't exist.

If you see model that can reliably answer questions about itself (version, family, capabilities, etc), then it's most likely part of system prompt.

In absence of system prompt even Claude could say it's a model created by DeepSeek: https://x.com/stevibe/status/2026227392076018101

If you are talking with Claude about AI, it will sometimes passively bring up "frontier models like GPT-4o"

This is pretty standard in every model. Ask Opus or Gemini about 2026 (without a big system prompt to steer them) and they'll swear blind it's 2024/25 too.