Overview
- Organizers announced on June 17–18 that the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and a High‑Level Conference on Global AI Governance will run July 17–20 across three Shanghai zones: Expo, Zhangjiang, and West Bund.
- The summit has explicit central government backing from 10 ministries plus the Shanghai municipal government and plans about 140 forums with roughly 1,400 international guests.
- Organizers say the expo will exceed 100,000 square meters with more than 1,100 exhibitors and over 300 AI products scheduled for global debuts, alongside a WAIC Future Tech startup zone for investor matchmaking.
- WAIC‑Academic will be chaired by Turing Award winner Yao Qizhi with Richard Sutton as international co‑chair; the program received 284 submissions from over 10 countries and aims for an acceptance rate near 20% with accepted papers to be published by Springer.
- New ecosystem moves include the Hi WAIC app for registration and matchmaking, the WAIC City Walk linking 30+ city AI experience sites, and publication of the SAIL Award TOP30 drawn from 230 valid submissions with 14.3% overseas entries.