Five Highlights Ahead of the World AI Conference Opening This Week: Intelligence, Hardcore Tech, Experience, Youth, and Governance

By the Huangpu River, the heat is rising. Shanghai, the highland of China's AI development, once again leads the global AI trend.

From July 17 to 20, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC) will open across Shanghai's "three venues and four pavilions" — the Expo, Zhangjiang, and West Bund areas. Jointly hosted by multiple ministries including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology together with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, this international event will showcase China's AI achievements at an unprecedented scale and share the country's vision for AI development.

Since its inception in 2018, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference has been cultivated over eight years. As government officials and industry-academia-research leaders from around the world turn their eyes to Shanghai, this globally watched AI gathering will once again raise the curtain.

This year's conference takes "Intelligent Partners, Co-creating the Future" as its core theme. The total exhibition area exceeds 100,000 square meters for the first time, with over 1,100 enterprises exhibiting and more than 3,000 products on display, and over 300 products set for their global debut. The two major tracks of intelligent computing and embodied intelligence each gather over 200 enterprises, with dozens of leading "chain-owner" companies, central state-owned enterprises, and top foreign firms bringing their ecosystems to exhibit, showcasing cutting-edge practices of AI empowering all industries.

Highlight One: A Gathering of Global Top Minds

Richard Sutton

A global gathering that builds on the past and ushers in the future must bring together the top think tanks and industry leaders of the global AI field.

This year's WAIC features six major sections — forums and meetings, exhibitions, awards and competitions, application experiences, innovation incubation, and talent recruitment. The conference has planned over 140 forums, linking 12 national ministries, 8 national key laboratories, and more than 10 international organizations, gathering over 1,400 Chinese and foreign guests. For the first time it launches the high-level international academic conference "WAIC Academic," chaired by Turing Award laureate Andrew Yao, with academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering leading the academic committee — covering multiple countries and regions worldwide and dedicated to building a top-tier academic exchange platform in artificial intelligence.

Data as of July 7 shows that this year's WAIC has preliminarily confirmed participation by 9 Turing Award and Nobel Prize laureates. Among them, Richard Sutton, the father of reinforcement learning, will deliver a keynote speech, and Yoshua Bengio, one of the "three giants of deep learning," will present the UN's AI governance framework. Gilles Brassard, the 2025 Turing Award laureate, and Omar M. Yaghi, the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate, will discuss the new paradigm of AI4S (AI for Science).

Known as the "godfather of Silicon Valley," Kevin Kelly will attend as a special guest the sub-forum "From Digital Screens to Embodied Intelligence — A New Paradigm for the Physical World," hosted by Honor. "The development of AI and embodied intelligence today is astonishing. To be alive at this time, how magnificent it is," Kelly said.

Highlight Two: Debuts of Hardcore Technology

Visitors view Huawei's Ascend 950 SuperPoD at the 2026 Mobile World Congress Shanghai, held in Shanghai on June 24, 2026. Photo: Visual China Group.

The conference is not only a "magnetic field" for top think tanks to exchange ideas, but also an "arena" for technological breakthroughs and a "stage" for showcasing achievements.

Conference forums will focus on AI hotspots, delving into new industry trends around topics such as world models, open-source agents, AI Coding, the Token economy, and OPC.

On the exhibition side, as the flagship debut of this year's venue, the Ascend 950 SuperPoD will meet the public for the first time in its real-machine form as the world's largest-scale super node. This marks a new level for Ascend in the field of ultra-large-scale computing infrastructure, providing solid computing support for the era of large models. Shanghai Orient Computing Core Technology Co., Ltd. will debut the world's first software-defined near-memory computing 3D chip — DF1000, and Muxi will launch its heavyweight "Xijing" S-series super-node products.

In addition, industry-leading products such as the MiniMax M3 multimodal large model, the StepFun Agent operating system, the world's first AI agent phone, as well as multiple humanoid robots and AI dexterous hands, will all be exhibited at the conference.

Highlight Three: Strong Experiential Focus

Unlike previous editions that emphasized technical displays, this year's conference will greatly strengthen the public experience, making artificial intelligence no longer a distant tech concept but a practical productivity deeply integrated into manufacturing, healthcare, education, elderly care, entertainment, and many other industries.

For example, in "AI + Manufacturing," visitors can see on the exhibition floor how humanoid robots go to work on factory floors, participating in the production of automotive batteries, motors, and electronic controls. At the same time, citizens can also join WAIC CityWalk to check in at more AI-featured scenes.

It is reported that from July 15 to 20, "WAIC City Walk 2026 Companion Journey" will officially open to the public, connecting 24 AI-featured scenes across 6 districts of Shanghai and launching 6 in-depth industry exploration routes.

From the "AI Innovation Moli Ecology Line" visiting the Model Community and Model Speed Space, to the "Fun AI Entertainment Line" exploring the Shanghai Film Haopu Smart Industry Community and the century-old Zhang Garden; from the "Digital Intelligence Industry Consumption Line" experiencing Siemens' smart manufacturing innovation center, to the "Yangtze River Delta Sci-Tech Innovation Main Line" visiting Huawei's largest global R&D center at Qingpu Lianqiu Lake Sci-Tech Innovation Center — each route is an immersive industry observation. Meanwhile, robot flash mobs, digital-human interactions, AI performances, and other cool experiences await visitors to unlock.

These in-depth exploration routes reflect, from the side, the continuous breakthroughs of Shanghai's AI industry. Artificial intelligence, this "key variable," has also become a "strong increment" for high-quality economic development.

Data shows that in 2025, the city's 394 above-scale AI enterprises achieved an industry scale exceeding 637 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.5%, becoming a new driving force for the city's economic growth.

Highlight Four: Cultivating Youthful Strength

Shanghai, Xuhui West Bund, February 15, 2026 — the "Model Square" (Mosus Space) innovation ecosystem community and the national AI large-model industry cluster. Photo: Visual China Group.

Artificial intelligence is a youthful endeavor, and an endeavor for the young.

[Translator's note: This article previews five highlights of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The translation above covers the introduction and Highlights One through Four; the original continues with the remainder of Highlight Four and Highlight Five on global AI governance.]