# Ai2 releases byte-level checkpoints derived from Qwen and Llama

_Published Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 10:30 PM EDT · AI, Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Ai2 releases byte-level checkpoints derived from Qwen and Llama — Primary](https://www.datocms-assets.com/64837/1791355720-nature-cover-for-release-thumbnail.jpg)

Ai2 has released new model checkpoints that extend its Bolmo approach beyond Olmo to Qwen 3 8B and Llama 3 8B. The approach converts an existing language model from processing fixed word fragments to processing the bytes that represent characters, using a relatively short additional training run.

Ai2 says the resulting Bwen 8B and BlamaLlama-B 8B models come close to matching their original models. Bwen 8B outperforms Bolmo 7B across its aggregate evaluation suite. Ai2 also released Stage 1 checkpoints, which freeze the original model while training new byte-level components, giving researchers a starting point for architecture experiments.

## Sources

- [Ai2 Blog](https://allenai.org/blog/bolmo-nature)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/R22fEjk4OJ89LGh3iEL3ha
Published: 2026-10-08T02:30:29.405Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-07T08:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-08T04:42:53.486Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)