SHANGHAI, (Pakistan Point News - 18th Jul, 2026) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday announced the creation of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) and called for joint efforts to build a just and equitable system for global AI governance.
"All countries should take a people-centered approach and develop AI for the positive and for good. We should ensure that AI is an important driver for shared prosperity and common security," Xi said while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai.
China is a global leader in AI development. In 2025, its core AI industries were worth over 1.2 trillion Yuan (about US$176.6 billion), while the number of AI enterprises nationwide exceeded 6,200.
The country's open-source large AI models have been downloaded more than 10 billion times in total, continuing to create new and broader opportunities for global cooperation in AI innovation.
The world has entered an unprecedented period of active innovation on AI technologies, Xi said in his keynote address. He raised questions about how humans can get along with thinking machines, how security can be ensured when algorithm is part of decision-making, how ethical challenges by technologies can be tackled through adaptive governance, and how AI for all can be realized when the divide keeps widening.
"These questions demand serious consideration and real answers from the whole international community," he said as quoted by Xinhua.
Xi stressed the need for adhering to the principles of openness and win-win and boosting innovation-driven development, strengthening risk-awareness and ensuring that AI is secure and controllable, encouraging inclusiveness and promoting mutual learning between civilizations, and advocating solidarity and improving global governance.
The establishment of the WAICO, Xi said, is a major move by China to answer the call of the Global South and unite the international community together to promote vigorously AI development and governance. "It will be an important milestone in the history of AI development," he said. Twenty-nine countries have signed the agreement on the organization's creation as its founding members.
To further advance global AI capacity building, China will provide developing countries with 5,000 opportunities in AI training and seminar programs in the next five years, Xi pledged.
China will develop international AI application cooperation centers with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. It will also enable 30 countries to use the AI-powered meteorological warning system, known as MAZU, to safeguard homes around the world, Xi said.
Representatives from 29 countries signed the agreement on Thursday, making their countries founding members of WAICO.
The organisation, headquartered in Shanghai, aims to ensure that AI is beneficial, safe and fair, and serves the benefit of all humanity, according to the organization's founding agreement.
