China unveils two new AI models at WAIC 2026: ScienceOne Omni 2.0 and Fenghe
Scientific discoveries are increasingly born at the intersection of disciplines, and artificial intelligence is becoming the bridge that connects disparate fields of knowledge. The new version of ScienceOne Omni and the meteorological model Fenghe are not just software products — they are tools that can accelerate fundamental research and make weather forecasting more accurate and accessible. China continues to expand its presence on the global AI map, offering open‑source solutions to the world.
On Friday, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), the updated version 2.0 of the scientific base model ScienceOne Omni was unveiled, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported. Developed by a joint research team led by CAS, ScienceOne Omni serves as a specialised intelligent framework for scientific tasks. It is designed to break down barriers between general AI and specialised scientific capabilities across various fields, providing more robust and comprehensive intelligent support for scientific research. ScienceOne Omni was first launched in July 2025. The new version 2.0 includes numerous enhancements, enabling the model to perform understanding, reasoning, prediction and generation across different scientific domains and tasks.
Also on Friday, the Fenghe model was unveiled — an open‑source language model designed for meteorological services. A global initiative to develop this model was also launched. The announcement was made by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) at the WAIC meteorological sub‑forum. Developed by the CMA, Fenghe is trained on 50 million meteorological data tokens and integrated with authoritative weather datasets to support weather forecasting, risk assessment and meteorological services. According to the CMA, Fenghe provides personalised weather information, service recommendations and risk alerts for users in China. Its international version is also included in the UN's "Early Warnings for All" initiative, offering weather advisories and risk analysis services in Chinese and English.
On Thursday, Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI released its latest model, Kimi K3, which has 2.8 trillion parameters, making it the world's largest open‑source AI model. Kimi K3 natively supports visual perception and has a one‑million‑token context window. It is optimised for complex tasks including software development, knowledge‑intensive work, deep research and multimodal understanding. According to the company, Kimi K3's overall intelligence level is close to that of leading global closed‑source models.
China is a global leader in AI development. In 2025, the country's core AI industries were valued at over 1.2 trillion yuan (about 176.6 billion US dollars), and the number of AI enterprises exceeded 6,200. The total number of downloads of large‑scale open‑source AI models developed in China has surpassed 10 billion, continuously creating new opportunities and expanding possibilities for global collaboration in AI innovation. As CCTV+ reports. The openness of Chinese developments and their integration into international initiatives, such as the UN programme, reaffirm the country's commitment to making cutting‑edge technologies accessible to all.
