China kicks off its annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai this week in a showcase of Beijing's AI ambitions amid a deepening technological rivalry with the US.
The annual event, which is hosted by several government ministries, has attracted China's top AI firms and institutions. The published agenda that runs from Thursday to Saturday is dominated by local firms and speakers, with some big international names conspicuously missing. Most notably, Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, will not be in attendance.
With domestic regulators flagging risks about generative AI, ChatGPT and similar services such as Google's Bard are unlikely to be allowed into the Chinese market, making AI another closed garden inside the Great Firewall that could benefit local tech giants.
