Shanghai is gearing up to host its eighth annual flagship artificial intelligence conference this weekend, as China intensifies its competition with the US for dominance in the rapidly evolving AI sector. The three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), themed “Global Solidarity in the AI Era,” will commence on Saturday, featuring an opening keynote by Premier Li Qiang. A high-level meeting on global AI governance will coincide with the event. The main forum at the Shanghai World Expo Centre will showcase a lineup of distinguished international scientists and business leaders, including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, Harry Shum, and Turing Award winner Andrew Yao. Notable business figures such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, MiniMax founder Yan Junjie, and SenseTime CEO Xu Li will also speak, alongside senior executives from Siemens and Schneider Electric. This conference presents a platform for China to highlight its latest AI advancements amid the intense rivalry between the world’s two largest economies. Meanwhile, the White House has released a 28-page AI Action Plan to bolster American AI technology exports to China and restrict the spread of Chinese AI models, reflecting a broader strategy to influence the regulatory landscape of the fast-paced technology.
Is Shanghai set for a US-China AI showdown?
