WeChat’s App Bloats 1400×, China’s Quantum Computer Reaches 1M Users, AI2 Releases OLMo

WeChat app size explosion

On February 1, the iOS version 8.0.47 of WeChat was updated to a massive 712.8 MB package, a dramatic increase that many users described as "huge" and called for a simplified version. The bloat is attributed to new video‑channel features such as cover sending, @mentions in comments, and a super‑fan live‑stream function.

China’s quantum computer “Wukong” reaches 1 million remote accesses

By the morning of February 1, the third‑generation domestic superconducting quantum computer “Benyuan Wukong” had been accessed by users in 94 countries and regions, completing 142,233 computation tasks out of 155,285 submitted, and surpassing one million remote access sessions worldwide.

The system, developed by Benyuan Quantum Computing Technology (Hefei) Co., Ltd., features a 72‑qubit superconducting chip called “Wukong Core” and has been offered free to global users since January 6.

AI2 releases OLMo open‑source language model

AI2 announced the launch of OLMo, an open‑source large language model designed to advance scientific understanding of LLMs. The model and its training data, built from the Dolma dataset containing three trillion tokens, are released together with code and an evaluation suite containing over 500 checkpoints.

Project lead Hanna Hajishirzi emphasized that open access to training data enables researchers to study model behavior without opaque black‑box constraints, fostering safer and more trustworthy AI development.

Google renames Bard to Gemini

Google confirmed that its conversational AI service Bard will be rebranded as Gemini across all devices and platforms, effectively retiring the Bard name. The change reflects the company’s strategy to consolidate its AI offerings under a single, unified brand.

While the transition is not yet live, screenshots show the new branding appearing on both mobile and web interfaces, indicating an upcoming rollout.