World AI Conference to Be Held in Shanghai This July

China's State Council Information Office announced on June 17 that the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) will be held in Shanghai from July 17 to 20, with the theme "Smart Partners, Creating the Future." The event is co-hosted by 10 government departments including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with the Shanghai municipal government. For the first time, a high-level international academic conference "WAIC Academic" will be launched, with Turing Award winner Yao Qizhi as chair and Richard Sutton, father of reinforcement learning, as international co-chair.

The conference has received 284 valid submissions from 11 countries and regions, covering universities like Princeton, Cambridge, and Tsinghua. Accepted papers will be published by Springer. The SAIL Award TOP30 list was also unveiled, with overseas projects accounting for 14.3%, covering areas like intelligent agents, computing chips, and embodied intelligence. The exhibition area exceeds 100,000 square meters, with nearly 140 forums and over 300 AI products making global debuts.