World Artificial Intelligence Conference

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The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC; Chinese: 世界人工智能大会) is an annual, government-backed artificial intelligence conference and exhibition held in Shanghai since 2018. It is co-hosted by a rotating group of Chinese national ministries and academies together with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, and it pairs one of the world's largest AI trade shows with a growing policy program ^[1][17]. Since 2024 that program has included an intergovernmental High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, making WAIC both the flagship annual showcase for China's AI industry and a stage for Beijing's AI-governance diplomacy ^[11][1].

What WAIC is

WAIC is a combined industry expo, conference and policy forum. Its exhibition halls fill the Shanghai World Expo Center and the adjacent Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center in the Pudong district, where chipmakers, cloud providers, model developers and robotics firms show hardware, large models and applications; a parallel program of plenary sessions and thematic forums brings together executives, academics, officials and, since 2024, foreign government delegations ^[1][8]. The event is usually held in July, though several editions have run in late August or early September ^[18][14].

The conference has been co-hosted by Chinese central-government bodies alongside the Shanghai municipal government since its first edition, but the exact roster of national co-hosts has changed from year to year. Reporting on the 2019 and 2023 editions listed the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), together with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government ^[17]. A Baidu Baike listing of co-hosts for later editions adds the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) ^[18]. International partners have taken part as well: the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) participated from the inaugural edition and used the 2023 conference to launch its Global Alliance on AI for Industry and Manufacturing ^[1].

History and editions

WAIC was created in 2018 as Shanghai positioned itself as China's AI hub. Every edition since 2019 has carried a Chinese theme beginning with the phrase 智联世界 (roughly, "connecting the world with intelligence"), rendered in English in slightly different ways each year ^[18]. The table below summarizes the editions; the most notable are discussed in the prose that follows.

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2018: the inaugural edition

The first WAIC opened on September 17, 2018, at Shanghai's West Bund. Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter that was read aloud by then Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang, framing the new generation of AI as a global opportunity and casting Shanghai as a center for its development ^[18]. The debut drew the leaders of China's largest technology companies, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma and Xiaomi's Lei Jun, alongside international figures such as Turing Award laureate Raj Reddy ^[18].

2019: the Musk-Ma conversation

The most widely covered moment in WAIC's history came at the 2019 edition, which ran August 29 to 31. On the opening day, Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma held a roughly 45-minute onstage conversation at the Shanghai Expo Center ^[14][15]. The two took opposing views on AI: Ma argued that AI was nothing to fear and that people should not worry, while Musk warned about the pace of machine intelligence and dwelt on risks including a future population decline ^[15]. The exchange, sometimes called the "Musk-Ma debate," ranged across automation, employment, space and Mars, and became the event's signature viral moment ^[14].

2020: an online edition

The 2020 conference, held July 9 to 11, ran largely online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers replaced most of the physical program with livestreamed sessions and a three-dimensional virtual exhibition platform ^[16][1]. The pivot kept the event on its annual cadence during a year when most large in-person technology gatherings were canceled.

2023: the generative-AI wave

By the 2023 edition (July 6 to 8), the global surge in generative AI and large language models had reshaped the show floor, and its theme translated as "Intelligent Connectivity, Generative Future" ^[1][18]. Chinese model developers used the event to present their answers to the large language model boom, and UNIDO chose the conference to launch its Global Alliance on AI for Industry and Manufacturing ^[1].

2024: the governance turn

The 2024 edition, held July 4 to 6, marked WAIC's clearest pivot toward policy. For the first time it was co-hosted with a High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance and carried the English theme "Governing AI for Good and for All" ^[11]. On July 4 the meeting issued the Shanghai Declaration on Global AI Governance, a document covering AI development, safety, an inclusive global governance mechanism, public participation and social well-being; it called for reliable AI that can be reviewed, monitored and traced, and for greater participation by developing countries ^[10]. Chinese state media reported that the 2024 conference drew on the order of 300,000 visitors ^[1]. Reuters reported that Chinese AI firms used the event to showcase resilience and new products despite United States export controls and sanctions ^[22].

2025: proposing a global body

The 2025 edition, held July 26 to 28 under the English theme "Global Solidarity in the AI Era" (also rendered "Intelligent Era, Global Collaboration"), continued to pair the expo with a High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance that drew representatives from nearly 40 countries and international organizations ^[13]. At that meeting, Premier Li Qiang proposed the establishment of an international organization for cooperation on AI development and governance, an idea that would be formalized a year later ^[12]. Chinese officials pitched the proposal as a way to give developing nations a larger role in setting AI rules ^[12].

WAIC 2026

The 2026 edition ran from July 17 to 20 in Shanghai. Xinhua reported the official theme as "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," while Global Times rendered the same Chinese theme as "Intelligent partners, co-creating the future" ^[2][4]. The program was organized into six segments (conferences and forums, exhibitions and showcases, awards and competitions, application experiences, innovation incubation, and talent attraction) and, as in prior years, was held alongside a High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance ^[2][4].

Scale

State and international media described WAIC 2026 as the largest edition to date. According to Xinhua and Global Times, the exhibition area exceeded 100,000 square meters for the first time, with more than 1,100 exhibitors showing over 3,000 products and technologies, of which more than 300 were global debuts ^[2][4]. CGTN reported more than 1,400 speakers and guests from China and abroad and more than 140 forums ^[3]. Global Times said the show was organized around two large tracks, intelligent computing and embodied AI, each with more than 200 companies ^[4]. Conference officials, cited by Global Times, also promoted cumulative figures of 57 major application scenarios implemented and 16.2 billion yuan in intended cooperation agreements; such promotional totals should be read as organizer claims rather than independently audited results ^[4]. Among the headline product launches organizers highlighted were Huawei's Atlas 950 supernode, MiniMax's M3 multimodal model and a "world's first AI agent smartphone," alongside humanoid robots and AI dexterous hands ^[4].

Founding of WAICO

The defining development of WAIC 2026 was the launch of a new intergovernmental body. On July 16, representatives from 29 countries signed an agreement making their nations founding members of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO; Chinese: 世界人工智能合作组织), also rendered in English as the World AI Cooperation Organization ^[6][2]. Xinhua reported that the organization is to be headquartered in Shanghai and that, per its founding agreement, it aims to ensure that AI is beneficial, safe and fair and serves the benefit of all humanity ^[2].

Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address at the opening ceremony on July 17, which TechTimes described as his first keynote at the conference, and announced the establishment of WAICO ^[5][2]. In his speech Xi set out a four-point approach to AI governance emphasizing openness and cooperation, controllable safety, inclusiveness, and stronger multilateral governance centered on the United Nations, and he opposed turning AI into a tool of geopolitical rivalry ^[5]. TechTimes and other outlets reported that Xi also pledged 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities for developing countries over five years, spanning Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the BRICS group; the figure comes from reporting on the speech and should be treated as a stated pledge ^[5].

Notable robotics and embodied-AI exhibits

Robots and embodied AI were a defining theme of the 2026 show, with a dedicated exhibition track and hundreds of humanoid and service robots on the floor ^[4][3]. Tencent used the event to release its Tairos embodied-intelligence open platform, developed by its Robotics X and Futian labs to supply models and cloud tools to robot makers, and demonstrated its Hy-Embodied full-stack embodied-AI models with a massage robot called Xiaoliu that drew crowds ^[20]. BrainCo presented what it billed as the world's first integrated brain-to-robot AI research platform, pairing a non-invasive EEG headset with third-party humanoids, robotic arms and quadrupeds, including robots from Unitree, so that a person could drive a robot by thought ^[21][24]. Chinese robotics startup AheadForm showed an ultra-realistic humanoid head that, according to Xinhua, uses over 200 high-precision micro-expression control points to reproduce the subtle movements of 43 human facial muscles ^[19]. Humanoid developers such as AgiBot were also among the exhibitors ^[5]. These examples are illustrative rather than exhaustive; the show floor featured hundreds of firms.

Global AI governance dimension

Since 2024, WAIC has increasingly fused its trade show with AI-governance diplomacy, and this has become the conference's most closely watched dimension internationally. The 2024 Shanghai Declaration on Global AI Governance set out China's preferred principles: development and shared benefit, AI safety and traceability, a global governance mechanism with a larger role for developing countries, public participation and social well-being ^[10]. The 2025 meeting turned that agenda toward institution-building when Premier Li Qiang proposed a dedicated cooperation body ^[12], and the 2026 edition delivered it in the form of WAICO ^[6].

Beijing frames this program as an inclusive, UN-centered alternative that gives the Global South a seat at the table in setting AI rules, in contrast to what Chinese officials characterize as Western-dominated forums ^[5][2]. The initiative parallels China's broader Global AI Governance Initiative and its push for AI capacity-building in developing countries. International coverage has generally read the same events through a geopolitical lens, describing WAICO as a China-led bloc that enlists Global South states and competes with the United States and the European Union for influence over global AI norms ^[8][7]. The two readings are not mutually exclusive: WAICO can be both a genuine multilateral vehicle for states outside the US and EU frameworks and an instrument of Chinese influence.

Significance and role in China's AI strategy

WAIC is central to how China presents its AI ambitions to domestic and foreign audiences. For Shanghai, the conference anchors a local strategy to become a national and global AI center, and the city government is a permanent co-host ^[13][1]. For the central government, WAIC has become an annual set piece for demonstrating that Chinese AI is advancing despite United States export controls on advanced AI chips and equipment; the 2024 and 2026 editions in particular were used to show domestic models, accelerators and robots as evidence of resilience ^[22][4]. The event also functions as a marketplace and recruiting fair, with dedicated segments for competitions, investment matchmaking and talent attraction ^[2].

Over time the conference has tracked the shifting frontier of the field: early editions emphasized computer vision and smart-city applications, the 2023 edition rode the generative-AI and large-model wave, and the 2025 and 2026 editions foregrounded embodied AI, humanoid robots and AI agents ^[1][4]. Layered on top of the technology showcase, the governance program since 2024 has given Beijing a recurring platform to advance its vision of how AI should be governed globally ^[11][6].

Reception and criticism

Coverage of WAIC divides along predictable lines. Chinese state media and the Shanghai government present the conference as proof of China's growing AI strength and as an open, inclusive contribution to global cooperation ^[2][13]. Western and international outlets tend to treat the same conference as a showcase for Chinese AI soft power and, since 2026, as the launchpad for a rival governance bloc: Bloomberg described WAICO as a China-led body enlisting Global South states to rival the United States, Reuters reported Xi using the event to promote China's commitment to AI access and to position the country as a leader of a new global AI order, and TechTimes framed the organization as a parallel governance architecture for countries outside the US and EU frameworks ^[8][9][5].

Analysts have also noted the limits and open questions around the initiative. The Diplomat characterized WAICO as part of a broader institutional turn in which AI governance is fracturing into competing blocs rather than converging on a single global regime ^[7]. Skeptics question how much binding authority a Shanghai-headquartered body will hold, whether major AI powers outside China will join, and how its safety and openness commitments will be enforced in practice; supporters counter that it gives developing nations a formal voice they lack elsewhere. As with any large state-backed expo, promotional attendance, deal-value and product-count figures originate with organizers and are best attributed rather than taken as audited fact ^[4].

ELI5

Imagine a giant yearly fair in Shanghai where China shows off its best robots, computer chips and AI programs. It started in 2018, and it is where a famous 2019 argument between Elon Musk and Jack Ma about whether AI is scary took place. In recent years the fair grew a second job: world leaders and officials also meet there to argue about the rules for AI. In 2026 China used the fair to start a brand-new international club for AI rules, called WAICO, based in Shanghai, with 29 countries signing up on the first day. Supporters say the club helps smaller countries get a say; critics say it is China building its own team to compete with the United States and Europe.

See also

• Artificial intelligence
• China AI
• Embodied AI
• Humanoid robot
• AI safety
• Tairos
• Hy-Embodied
• AheadForm

References

1. ^Wikipedia, "World Artificial Intelligence Conference," accessed July 2026. en.wikipedia.org/...ficial_Intelligence_Conference
2. ^Xinhua, "2026 World AI Conference opens in Shanghai," July 18, 2026. english.news.cn/...c
3. ^CGTN, "AI conference opens in Shanghai with over 300 global product debuts," July 17, 2026. news.cgtn.com/...p
4. ^Global Times, "2026 WAIC set for July 17 with over 300 global product debuts in Shanghai," July 2026. globaltimes.cn/...1365377.shtml
5. ^TechTimes, "China Launches Rival AI Governance Bloc as WAIC 2026 Opens With 300 Product Debuts," July 17, 2026. techtimes.com/...aic-2026-opens-300-product-debuts
6. ^Reuters, "Twenty-nine countries sign agreement to establish global AI cooperation body," July 16, 2026. reuters.com/...obal-ai-cooperation-body-2026-07-16
7. ^The Diplomat, "China's New AI Club: The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization," July 2026. thediplomat.com/...igence-cooperation-organization
8. ^Bloomberg, "China-led AI body enlists Global South states to rival US," July 16, 2026. bloomberg.com/...s-global-south-states-to-rival-us
9. ^Reuters, "China's Xi promotes China's commitment to AI access in speech at Shanghai conference," July 17, 2026. reuters.com/...eech-shanghai-conference-2026-07-17
10. ^Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, "Full text: Shanghai Declaration on Global AI Governance," July 4, 2024. mfa.gov.cn/...t20240704_11448351
11. ^The State Council of the People's Republic of China (Xinhua), "2024 World AI Conference on global governance opens in Shanghai," July 5, 2024. english.www.gov.cn/...t_WS66874e0bc6d0868f4e8e8e66
12. ^Reuters, "China's Premier Li proposes global AI cooperation organisation," July 26, 2025. reuters.com/...cooperation-organisation-2025-07-26
13. ^Shanghai Municipal People's Government, "2025 World AI Conference highlights innovation and collaboration," July 21, 2025. english.shanghai.gov.cn/...04546879dd0ddbb26408008
14. ^Reuters, "Tesla's Musk, Alibaba's Ma talk aliens and AI, skip issues like trade," August 29, 2019. reuters.com/...kip-issues-like-trade-idUSKCN1VJ0RG
15. ^BBC News, "Elon Musk and Jack Ma disagree about AI's threat," August 29, 2019. bbc.com/...technology-49508091
16. ^TechNode, "World AI Conference 2020 goes live on July 9-11," June 24, 2020. technode.com/...erence-2020-goes-live-on-july-9-11
17. ^China Daily, "World Artificial Intelligence Conference to open in Shanghai," June 11, 2019. govt.chinadaily.com.cn/...ence-to-open-in-shanghai
18. ^Baidu Baike, "World Artificial Intelligence Conference" (year-by-year themes and co-hosts), accessed July 2026. baike.baidu.com/...1517303
19. ^Xinhua, "So real, you'll look twice: AheadForm's ultra-realistic robot at WAIC 2026," July 20, 2026. english.news.cn/...c
20. ^36Kr, "Tencent releases the Tairos Embodied Intelligence Open Platform," July 2026. eu.36kr.com/...3403965013069441
21. ^PR Newswire, "BrainCo Debuts World's First Integrated Brain-to-Robot AI R&D Platform at WAIC 2026," July 17, 2026. prnewswire.com/...-platform-at-waic-2026-302828515
22. ^Reuters, "Chinese AI firms showcase resilience, innovations at AI event despite US sanctions," July 5, 2024. reuters.com/...ent-despite-us-sanctions-2024-07-05
23. Shanghai Municipal People's Government, "2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference to be held on July 6-8," June 29, 2023. english.shanghai.gov.cn/...397404c948f8cfdb1b062f9
24. ^InsideBCI, "BrainCo brings brain-to-robot platform to WAIC 2026," July 18, 2026. insidebci.com/...26-brain-to-robot-platform-nyx-he