Heat, hardware and high stakes at China’s biggest World Artificial Intelligence Conference

China's President Xi Jinping delivered his first keynote speech at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, calling for China to seize the "rare historic opportunity" of AI-driven growth by encouraging open source and collaboration. The conference, the hottest and most crowded in its six-year history, saw tickets officially priced at 168 yuan scalped for upwards of 1,000 yuan as attendees flocked to the event amid a global frenzy around agentic AI.

Heat, hardware and high stakes at China’s biggest World Artificial Intelligence Conference SCMP’s Ann Cao just finished covering her sixth WAIC in Shanghai, and now she’s eagerly looking forward to the next one Ann Cao /author/ann-cao in Shanghai Traffic almost came to a standstill 2km 1.2 miles from the Shanghai Expo Centre on Friday, the first day of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference WAIC . With temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius 104 degrees Fahrenheit , scores of attendees abandoned their taxis to walk the rest of the way under the hot sun. This year’s conference mirrored the weather: it was the hottest, most crowded WAIC in my six years covering the event and, I was told, the most vibrant since its inception in 2018. President Xi Jinping, who delivered his first WAIC keynote speech https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3360858/chinas-xi-jinping-addresses-world-ai-conference-us-tech-rivalry-heats?module=inline&pgtype=article at the expo centre, saying China would seize the “rare historic opportunity” of AI-driven growth by “encouraging open source, openness, collaboration and sharing”. Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre https://www.scmp.com/topics/hong-kong-generative-ai-research-and-development-centre?module=inline&pgtype=article announcing the launch of an “LLM Going Global Strategy”, adding that it planned to use the city’s special role as a “superconnector” to help share mainland China’s AI technologies with the rest of the world. The endorsement from the top leader, along with the global frenzy around agentic AI, also pushed attendee enthusiasm to an unprecedented level, something especially evident at the World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre, an exhibition hall a few hundred metres from the main conference venue. Tickets officially priced at 168 yuan US$24.82 were scalped for upwards of 1,000 yuan, snapped up not just by industry insiders who wanted to learn about the latest AI trends, but also by parents eager to paint a tech-forward future for their children and young graduates looking to secure jobs in the booming industry.