What is WAICO? Inside China’s new 29-nation alliance to counter US AI dominance

China has moved its artificial intelligence contest with the United States beyond laboratories, semiconductor factories and technology companies. It is now building an international institution around its competing vision for how AI should be developed, governed and distributed.

President Xi Jinping on Friday formally backed the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, or WAICO, at China’s flagship AI conference in Shanghai.

The organisation, headquartered in the Chinese financial city, has been established by 29 countries as what Beijing describes as the first intergovernmental body dedicated to AI cooperation.