After eight years of development, China's AI has finally established its own world-class academic event, WAICA.

WAICA 2026 Officially Launched: Andrew Chi-Chih Yao Serves as Chairman, Initiating "AI + Public + Experts" Collaborative Review

When the global artificial intelligence academic community is struggling with issues such as inaccurate review, difficulty in reproduction, and a narrowing upward path for young scholars, an academic conference with the mission of "reshaping rules" has officially set sail in Shanghai.

In February 2026, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference - Academic (WAIC - Academic, abbreviated as WAICA), an international academic conference built on the eight - year accumulation of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), was officially launched. The first - session conference has been confirmed to be held in Shanghai in July, concurrent with WAIC. The official website (waica2026.worldaic.com.cn) and the submission system have been launched simultaneously, marking a crucial step for China in building a world - class academic benchmark.

I. Emerging in Response to the Trend: From an Industry High - ground to an Academic Origin

Since its establishment in 2018, WAIC has grown into one of the largest and highest - level industry events in the global artificial intelligence field. In 2025, the conference brought together 1,500 top scholars from more than 70 countries, with young scientists and industry representatives accounting for over 50%. The online traffic exceeded 2.5 billion. However, in the AI field where technology iterates on a monthly basis, there is an urgent need for a deep - exchange platform that can match the industry exhibition and negotiation and lead the academic trend.

The establishment of WAICA precisely fills this strategic gap. It doesn't start from scratch but relies on the network of more than 8,000 top global experts, the political, industrial, academic, and research resources from more than 90 countries (regions) that WAIC has gathered over eight years, as well as the geographical advantage of Shanghai as a science and technology innovation center, transforming the influence of the "industry event" into the cornerstone of an "academic high - ground". This is a forward - looking institutional layout in the process of China's transformation from a major country in AI application innovation to a powerful country in original basic theory.

II. Innovating by Discarding the Old: Reconstructing the "Trustworthy Ecosystem" of Academic Review

Facing the long - standing problems in traditional top - tier conferences, such as inaccurate review and difficulty in reproduction due to the sharp increase in the number of submissions, WAICA has been committed to exploring a more fair, transparent, and verifiable review paradigm since its inception. Its core innovation is reflected in three dimensions:

Firstly, the upgrade of the result carrier. The system supports multimedia submissions such as videos, audios, 3D models, and interactive demonstrations, enabling breakthrough results in fields such as generative AI, autonomous driving, and embodied intelligence, which are difficult to fully present in text and images, to be intuitively perceived at the review stage.

Secondly, the diversification of review subjects. It innovatively introduces a "AI + public + experts" collaborative review mechanism: AI assists in verifying the authenticity of data and literature; globally real - name - authenticated scholars can participate in public reviews, forming a "public review of papers"; peer experts conduct professional reviews. The field chair makes decisions based on the opinions of the three parties, breaking the limitations of single - peer review.

Thirdly, the closed - loop of research integrity. A verification platform integrating a "data warehouse + computing power support + code running platform" is constructed. Authors can choose to submit demonstration codes and data simultaneously. Gradually forming the habit of "runnable and verifiable" will effectively curb the trend of exaggeration and return academic evaluation to the essence of innovation.

III. Cultivating a Fertile Ground: The Incentive System Aims at Long - term Value

Respecting innovators and giving a sense of gain to explorers is another focus of WAICA's institutional design. In addition to setting up multiple awards such as the best paper, the most promising newcomer, and the best open - source contribution, two major supports have been clearly defined:

· Collaborating with the "Hundred Teams, Hundred Projects" special project of Shanghai's scientific intelligence to open up a channel for outstanding paper authors to apply for provincial - and ministerial - level scientific research projects.

· All participants will be given free passes to the WAIC exhibition, bridging the gap between laboratory research and market application through face - to - face industry exchanges and opening up the "last mile" between academic discussions and industrial applications.

More expectantly, the conference is actively striving to include excellent results in the policy scope of municipal talent introduction and project application, so that the honor of the academic conference can generate continuous career development value.

IV. All Streams Flow to the Sea: The Global Top Minds Gather for the First Voyage

The first WAICA has shown strong academic appeal. The conference chairman is Mr. Andrew Chi - Chih Yao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Turing Award laureate; Richard Sutton, a Turing Award laureate and the "father of reinforcement learning", is invited to serve as the co - chairman; the program committee chair is jointly held by Zheng Qinghua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and E Weinan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the vice - chairs are held by Jiang Yugang and Li Xuelong, two leading scholars in the field.

This leadership lineup, which combines the prestige of top - level figures and on - the - ground execution ability, has given the conference a very high starting point and credibility. In collaboration with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, WAICA is rapidly building a network of young scholars connecting global top - tier laboratories.

However, WAICA has no intention of replacing existing top - tier conferences. Its real vision is to become a new academic habitat where scholars from developing countries also have the right to speak in the review process and innovation doesn't have to conform to format regulations.

According to the plan, the submission deadline for the first - session conference is March 31, 2026, with an acceptance rate controlled at around 20%. The results will be announced at the end of May, and the conference will be held in Shanghai in July, concurrent with WAIC. With a cycle of 3 to 5 years, it aims to build an academic palace that global artificial intelligence scholars yearn for.

In today's world where artificial intelligence has become the strategic high - ground of major - power technological competition, WAICA is firmly moving towards the academic frontier with an open attitude to gather global wisdom. This is not only an active move by China to enhance its global AI academic discourse power but also the common expectation of the international academic community to jointly build an open, trustworthy, and vibrant innovation ecosystem. The value of this academic public platform initiated by China and facing the world will ultimately be proven by time.

See you in Shanghai in July 2026.

This article is from the WeChat official account "World Artificial Intelligence Conference". Author: Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.