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.
One thing that made the event so different this year was the presence of President Xi Jinping, who delivered his first WAIC keynote speech at the expo centre, saying China would seize the “rare historic opportunity” of AI-driven growth by “encouraging open source, openness, collaboration and sharing”.
That call was heeded by AI research centres from around the world, with the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre 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.
Xi’s presence and endorsement, 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.
The venue spanned over 10 hectares (24.7 acres) and featured 4,486 exhibits and 1,117 exhibitors – one-third more than last year – with organisers saying it attracted over 400,000 visitors.
Even a heavy afternoon rainstorm on Sunday, the third day of the event, could not stop the flow of people. They just closed their umbrellas, shook off the water, and kept rushing into the halls.
Inside the expo hall, the ground-level energy shifted from climatic concerns to visual spectacle, particularly in Hall H2, where major domestic AI chipmakers – from tech giant Huawei Technologies to smaller players like Moore Threads, MetaX, Kunlunxin and Enflame – were gathered.
“This year we are calling the room ‘supernode hall’”, a staff member at one booth said. Supernode, an advanced architectural framework that links hundreds or thousands of AI chips together using ultra-high-speed networking, became a new competitive arena at WAIC this year as chip companies unveiled their solutions for scaling up computing power.
The undisputed crowd magnet was Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPod, with computing cabinets housing 1,024 Ascend AI processors. The sprawling footprint of servers was so massive that visitors had to stand on tiptoes, holding their phones high over their heads, to capture the entire exhibit in a single frame.
But the crowd was most densely packed in the robotics section on the second floor. When two Unitree robots began dancing at the company’s booth on Sunday afternoon, the surrounding aisle instantly transformed into a sea of smartphones taking photos and video.
“As robotics are visible and easy to interact with, the section has become the top spot for many visitors,” one exhibitor said.
The booths and speeches of big tech companies like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, participants at every WAIC, came with a clear message: AI is now about doing real work, not just chatting.
Instead of fighting over who has the smartest model, they are competing in the creation of enterprise AI agents that can build digital workers for businesses. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Even non-tech companies tried to show their commitment to AI, including Luckin Coffee, which advertised the role of AI in its supply chain management and store operation. Its cups were ubiquitous, with long queues at its two pop-up locations.
Eager to find out if AI-powered coffee tasted different, I joined the line at one and grabbed an iced Americano – which tasted just like others I’ve tried.
As I packed up my notes and watched the LED displays power down, I knew I would definitely return next year.
Even those who missed out were already looking ahead. A friend who is seeking to start his own venture in AI-powered video games told me: “I will be on standby for a ticket next year. There’s no way I’m getting left out again.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING :POST
