When Chinese tech giant Ant Group released its new AI coding assistant tool last Tuesday, it didn't expect the app to break under its own popularity. LingGuang, an AI app for vibe coding and building apps using plain-language prompts, reached over 1 million downloads in four days. By Monday, the app had crossed 2 million downloads, the company said in a press release. On Monday, LingGuang ranked first on Apple's mainland China App Store for free utilities apps and sixth overall for free apps. Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group, said on Thursday - three days after LingGuang's debut - that the app's system buckled under heavy traffic.
Chinese tech behemoth Ant Group, which owns payment platform Alipay, has been showing off its first humanoid robot at tech conferences this month. It joins a growing wave of companies carving out space along a fresh frontier in automation by combining artificial intelligence with physical tech. Videos and news reports show Robbyant's R1 robot cooking for audiences at the IFA 2025 tech show in Berlin last week. What was on the menu? Shrimp, reportedly.