Full text: Keynote speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at opening ceremony of 2026 World AI Conference
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Full text: Keynote speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at opening ceremony of 2026 World AI Conference
Updated: July 17, 2026 19:26<br>Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, east China, July 17, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]
SHANGHAI, July 17 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance held here on Friday.
The following is the full text of the address:
Joining Hands to Build a Just and Equitable System For Global AI Governance
Keynote Address by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People's Republic of China
At the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance
Shanghai, July 17, 2026
Distinguished Colleagues and Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Seventy years ago, a group of young scholars proposed the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time at the Dartmouth Workshop in New Hampshire of the United States. In the subsequent 70 years, AI scientists and researchers from around the world ventured into this unknown territory, forged ahead through twists and turns, and made breakthroughs with persistent hard work. Seven decades later today, amid the new wave of AI development, we are gathering by the Huangpu River to discuss how to promote AI globally for the positive, for good and for humanity. All this makes our meeting highly important. On behalf of the Chinese government and people, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you all.
In the course of history, the invention of the steam engine heralded the industrial civilization, the widespread access to electricity brightened up modern society, and the birth of the Internet brought the entire world together. Each of these technological revolutions has profoundly reshaped our way of work and life, and enabled a giant leap in economic and social development.
Today, major changes unseen in a century are accelerating across the world. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is advancing at a faster pace, and the world has entered an unprecedented period of active innovation on AI technologies. Intelligent connectivity, human-machine collaboration, cross-sector integration, joint creation and sharing, and other intelligent technologies are unleashing enormous power. All this carries within it great opportunities as well as challenges to governance. We human beings must answer the questions posed by our times: How to get along with thinking machines? How to ensure security when algorithm is part of decision making? How to tackle ethical challenges by technologies through adaptive governance? How to realize AI for all when the divide keeps widening? These questions demand serious consideration and real answers from the whole international community.
In China's view, 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. We should join hands to build a just and equitable system for global AI governance. To this end, I wish to share four observations.
First, we should adhere to the principle of openness and win-win and boost innovation-driven development. As a new engine of world economic growth and an accelerator for the shift of growth drivers, AI is moving from the digital world into the physical world. We should seize this rare, historic opportunity to encourage open source, openness, collaboration and sharing. We should facilitate technological innovation, industrial development and scenario-based application of AI. We should make coordinated advances in the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries, the cultivation and growth of emerging industries and forward-looking planning for future industries, so that all sectors and businesses can benefit from AI.
Second, we should strengthen risk-awareness and ensure that AI is secure and controllable. AI should be a trusted tool for humanity. We should take seriously the various types of inherent and secondary risks that AI may trigger. We should put in place laws and regulations, technological monitoring, early warning and emergency response systems in order to strengthen the line of security, prevent abuses and malicious use, and ensure that AI is always under human control. In the meantime, we should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI and placing one country's security over that of others.
Third, we should encourage inclusiveness and promote mutual learning...