Overview
- Pakistan formalised its founding membership when Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar signed the WAICO agreement during his visit to Shanghai on Thursday.
- State media reported that 29 countries signed the founding pact to create the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation and to base the body in Shanghai.
- President Xi Jinping used the WAIC opening keynote to promise 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities for developing countries over the next five years and to cast China’s open models as an international public good.
- Chinese firms showcased large domestic AI systems and models at the conference, including Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD and models adapted for Huawei’s Ascend processors, underlining Beijing’s push for hardware and software self‑reliance.
- Key questions remain about how WAICO will operate, how it will enforce standards, and how it will interact with U.S.‑aligned initiatives and upcoming government‑level AI talks between Washington and Beijing.