Global industry leaders participating in the 2025 World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai have highlighted the growing applications for AI, called for strengthening global cooperation and joint governance to ensure safe implementation of the emerging technology.
Running from Saturday to Monday, the WAIC gathered tens of thousands of professionals from 128 countries and regions. The event has witnessed the official establishment of the Center of Global AI Innovative Governance.
Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, lauded as the godfather of AI, shared insights on the numerous opportunities and challenges presented by the current advancements in AI during an on-stage dialogue on the first day of the event.
"I think it's very clear that AI is going to help science a lot. Obviously, the most impressive example so far is protein folding, and you mentioned the example I think of predicting where a typhoon would land and predicting the weather in general. AI can do a bit better than the best systems. So my view is, current multi-modal chatbots are already conscious," said Hinton.
"But as soon as you have agents that are in the world like robots, they can learn from their own experiences. And they will, I think, eventually learn much more than us," he said.
Industry experts believe that collaboration and governance in AI are crucial in addressing shared challenges. During this year's conference, the Chinese government has proposed the creation of a global AI cooperation organization to promote AI for good and the inclusive development of AI.
"We can see that the Chinese government has introduced a series of very new initiatives aimed at promoting safety and development," said Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University.
"It can be said that every country has the right to develop AI, making it a universally beneficial endeavor. At the same time, its safety and governance rely on global cooperation, in which China has made significant contributions," said Yu Xiaohui, president of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Several international experts and scholars noted that China's AI industry is developing at an astonishing pace and maintains an open attitude toward collaboration, playing a positive role in the development and governance of this field worldwide.
"Here at the WAIC, we could meet many other country representatives from Asia, Southeast Asia or Europe and we hope that we can find out together something which has never been on the market," said Gabor Proszeky, director general of the Hungarian Research Center for Linguistics.
"It's really amazing to see all the latest developments of AI in China, different verticals like health care, education, and even drones and also other appliances. AI is not one country's focus, it shouldn't be. It should be a global effort. I think China is definitely contributing significantly in that space," said Song Yixi, professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning at the University of Surrey.
Industry experts call for strengthening global AI cooperation
