As the article says, it is a new "hybrid" plant. Based off what they say it appears to me to simply be a new strain that people have "created" through the use of artificial selection. The strain has been evolved over time to be auto-flowering and resistant to pesticides.
Cannabis cannot readily be crossed with other plants as far as I know. Cannabis could be grafted onto a hops plant, but the closest thing I have heard as to new "hybrid" cannabis comes from a select group who have treated cannabis with mutagenic chemicals, altering it into something that still produces THC but is instead small, odd looking, and doesn't bear distinctive fan shaped leaves.
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