At the beginning of this year, China has made significant advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). First, it introduced DeepSeek AI, which is offered at a lower cost than other AI systems and has garnered substantial global attention.
Following the successful launch of DeepSeek AI in March, China launched ManusAI, which also received widespread acclaim and proved to be successful.
And now Chinese researchers in Hefei made a big breakthrough by using a real quantum computer, called Origin Wukong, to improve a huge AI model with 1 billion parameters. The occasion was the first time anyone in the world did this with a real quantum machine.
The United States has added this Chinese research firm to the US trade blacklist in the year 2024.
Origin Wukong is a powerful quantum computer with 72 qubits, and it’s China’s third-generation model. Wukong was used to improve the AI’s performance by 8.4% and reduce its component count by 76%, making it both smarter and simpler.
This feat shows how quantum computers could make AI training faster and more efficient, according to a report from Science and Technology Daily.
Chen Zhaoyun, a researcher at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence under the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Centre, said, “This is the first time a real quantum computer has been used to fine-tune a large language model in a practical setting. It shows that current quantum hardware can begin to support real-world AI training tasks.”
The upgraded AI model, improved by China’s Origin Wukong quantum computer, got better at specific jobs. When it was trained on mental health chat data, it made 15% fewer errors. In a math test, it went from getting 68% of answers right to 82%, according to Science and Technology Daily.
Fine-tuning is like customizing a general AI like DeepSeek to do special tasks, such as studying medical information. Normally, such work takes powerful regular computers, but they struggle with slow growth and use lots of energy.
Quantum computers are different. Quantum computers use strange rules of physics to work faster than regular computers. Superposition allows one small piece to try many options at once.
They use weird quantum tricks: superposition lets one part hold many options at once, and entanglement connects parts so they work together instantly. This approach lets quantum computers test tons of AI settings super fast, making training quicker and less power-hungry than usual.
Researchers from Origin Quantum, a startup in Hefei that built the Origin Wukong quantum computer, teamed up with others to invent a new way to tweak AI models.
They called it “quantum-weighted tensor hybrid parameter fine-tuning.” In simple terms, they mixed quantum and regular computing to adjust the AI’s settings. The quantum part spots tricky patterns in the data, while the regular part shrinks the model so it doesn’t need as much power.
On the Wukong chip, they can process a chunk of AI training data and split it into hundreds of small quantum tasks running at the same time. Dou Menghan, a leader at Origin Quantum, says the feat shows how the chip can handle tough, heavy workloads efficiently.
Wukong, which was launched in January 2024, is one of the world’s top programmable quantum computers that anyone can use commercially. It’s a superconducting type, and over 80% of its parts, both hardware and software, are made in China, with backup systems also built by the company.
As per the reports, by February 2025, it had over 20 million visits from people in 139 countries. It’s been used for tons of tasks like in biomedicine, fluid studies, and finance, completing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Users primarily came from the US, Russia, Japan, and Canada, with Americans leading the way among international visitors.
Guo Guoping, a leading quantum physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China and co-founder of Origin Quantum, said that,“US quantum computers are not open to China.”
He further added that, “But, adhering to the notion of scientific exploration without borders, we are willing to open our services to users around the world, including the US, to jointly promote the concept of quantum computing for the benefit of mankind.”
The company behind Origin Wukong, a powerful quantum computer, shared that they’re working on an even better version called Origin Wukong 2. This new fourth-generation model is in its last stage of being built and tested, meaning it’s almost ready to launch. It’s an upgrade from the current third-generation Origin Wukong, promising to be more advanced and capable.
Further, China is also working on developing a “self-learning, self-improving” artificial intelligence (AI) model that will not require human interference for updates and maintenance.
Also Read: China is now building a “self-improving” AI that doesn’t require humans
