On the morning of July 26, the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence grandly opened at the Shanghai World Expo Center.​
Centering on the theme of "Intelligent Era, Working Together for a Shared Globe", the conference sets up 5 major sections including conferences and forums, exhibitions, competitions and awards, application experiences, and innovation and incubation, comprehensively demonstrating the latest practices in AI technological frontiers, industrial trends and global governance.​
This year‘s conference has achieved breakthroughs in both depth and breadth. It not only delves into the "principles" of artificial intelligence technology, but also focuses on the major "questions" faced by the times. The conference targets 10 key sectors such as AI infrastructure, scientific intelligence, intelligent terminals, AI-enabled new industrialization, and AI + finance, and is presented in a renewed "1+1+2+10+N" structure, which means: 1 opening ceremony and main forum, 1 High-Level Meeting on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence, 2 plenary sessions on scientific frontiers and development & security, more than 10 ministerial forums, and N ecological forums.​
The international influence of this year‘s conference has been comprehensively enhanced, with the number of top award guests, exhibition area and "first-launch" new products reaching record highs in previous sessions. Among them, the exhibition area of this year‘s conference exceeded 70,000 square meters for the first time. More than 800 enterprises gathered, and over 3,000 cutting-edge exhibits were displayed, including more than 40 large models, more than 50 AI terminal products, more than 60 intelligent robots, and more than 100 heavyweight new products making their "global debut" or "China premiere". The four pavilions are divided into Core Technology Pavilion, Industry Application Pavilion, Intelligent Terminal Pavilion and Global Linkage Pavilion, building an "AI Capability Corridor" that connects algorithm models, scenario integration, embodied collaboration and supply-demand matching, with the scale reaching the highest in previous sessions.​
WAIC 2025 has fully upgraded the SAIL Award and Youth Excellent Paper Award to recognize young scientific and technological forces with outstanding potential in basic research, technological breakthroughs and application innovation, opening a window and channel for the new generation of researchers and entrepreneurs to make their debut. At the same time, it has launched multi-level competition platforms such as the BPAA Global Application Algorithm Model Model Competition and the Youth League Committee‘s Youth Artificial Intelligence Innovation Competition, providing a practical stage for young talents to "promote learning through competition and innovation through competition". The conference has newly launched youth elite exchange meetings and debates, inviting international celebrities, top enterprise CEOs and young elites to conduct ideological exchanges on hot topics such as large model evolution, embodied intelligence and quantum computing.​
The International Initiative on Open Source Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence was released at the opening ceremony. At the conference results release session held during the opening ceremony, the Global Center for Innovation and Governance of Artificial Intelligence was formally established, and the "China Wisdom · Enlightening the World (2025)" case collection, the International Initiative on Open Source Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence, and the Action Plan for Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence were officially released.​
This conference is co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Shanghai Municipal People‘s Government.