Foreign industry insiders and experts have spoken highly of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in China, saying they are amazed by the speed of innovation in the country.
The four-day 2026 World AI Conference kicked off on Friday in Shanghai. Themed "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," the event includes more than 140 forums, bringing together 1,400 guests from home and abroad.
Matt White, Global CTO of AI at the Linux Foundation, has been to China more than 10 times in two years. What impressed him the most was the overwhelming density of innovation in China's AI development.
"[I have been to] over 100 anything from EVs and like car manufacturers, like to the robotics companies," White said. "Everything moves fast in AI, right? So those were the models that were all released the week the time that I was here. I was shocked that they were all being released at the time that I was here," he said.
Professor Otthein Herzog is an artificial intelligence (AI) expert from Germany and has been working at the Tongji University in Shanghai since he was invited 11 years ago. He is a winner of the China Government Friendship Award, which highlights the value he has created through international collaboration on artificial intelligence.
His colleague Max Milhauser shared his opinion on China's AI development.
"A certain openness to change and technology that is not always found everywhere, whereas in other parts of the world, first look at the problems and then at the solutions," said Max Milhauser, a German scholar.
Foreign experts say they are amazed by China's AI development
The newly-established World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) marks a major milestone in AI development and a significant step toward global AI governance, international delegates said on Friday.
Twenty-nine countries on Thursday signed an agreement in Shanghai on establishing WAICO, an independent intergovernmental international organization headquartered in Shanghai.
The organization aims to promote international cooperation and global governance on AI, ensuring that AI is beneficial, safe and fair, thereby promoting its healthy and orderly development to benefit all humanity.
"I think this organization reinforces the need for multilateral cooperation. So you have 29 countries that have come together. I think yesterday's developments underline the importance of the capacity-building that countries around the world are facing an AI divide. There are some countries that do not have the talent, the datasets, the computer infrastructure, the access to the right models, and therefore efforts such as these can help bridge the AI divide," said UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill.
Alaa Abdulaal, chief of Digital Economy Intelligence at the Digital Cooperation Organization, also hailed the launch, saying that cooperation is vital to ensure that no country is structurally excluded from the evolving digital landscape.
"Any initiative that is targeted for opening dialogues and innovation and conversation between countries to make sure that everyone is participating in the digital economy is a huge milestone. Whenever we have cooperation, whenever we have different countries, different representation, making sure that no one is left outside AI, it is a huge achievement, definitely," said Abdulaal.
World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization marks milestone in AI development: int'l delegates
