The 2026 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit takes place from November 2 to 5 in Wuzhen, in China's Zhejiang province, with open-source artificial intelligence at the center of its agenda. This edition's official theme is “Open Source and Openness, Collaborative Development and Shared Benefits — Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace”.
What is on the agenda at Wuzhen Summit 2026
According to the organizers, the summit brings together representatives of governments, international organizations, companies and researchers to discuss innovation, security governance, cultural exchange and international cooperation. The summit is organized by the WIC, with local arrangements handled by the Zhejiang provincial government, and has been held in Wuzhen since 2014.
The program's main highlight is the “AI Wuzhen Dialogue” at the main forum, which gathers executives from leading technology companies, developers of open-source large models and scientists to discuss how to build a global open-source AI ecosystem. There are 27 sub-forums in total, covering topics such as cyberspace cooperation, trusted and interoperable AI agents, robotics and embodied AI, spatiotemporal intelligence, and green, low-carbon development enabled by digital technologies.
Alongside the summit, the Light of Internet Expo brings together, according to pre-event figures from the organizers, more than 670 enterprises from 54 countries and regions, including Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, SAP, Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent. The expo presents more than 1,000 technical results, with demonstrations of satellite internet, quantum communications and a 6G prototype system, including remote operation of construction machinery. These figures are organizer statements, not independently audited results.
The program also includes the WIC Awards for Pioneering Science and Technology, the WIC Distinguished Contribution Award and presentations of cases on jointly building a community with a shared future in cyberspace. Organizers say research findings on frontier AI safety and governance will also be released during the event.
Image credit: file photo of the opening ceremony of the 2025 Wuzhen Summit, by the Xinhua news agency, published by People's Daily. The image shows the previous edition of the event, not the 2026 edition.
Sources: World Internet Conference — official announcement of the 2026 summit; People's Daily / Xinhua — summit to focus on open-source AI; coverage of the 2026 Light of Internet Expo.
Transparency: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts and internet sources. For further details, please consult the original sources linked above.
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