The 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), jointly hosted by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), commenced at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center on July 8, 2021. CAE Vice President Zhong Zhihua and other CAE members attended the opening ceremony, with Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng presiding.

The ceremony was held both online and in person. Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, joined Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Managing Director of the Directorate of Digitalization at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), scientists and representatives of countries and cities from five continents in giving remarks via video links.

New major AI applications in Shanghai and the 2021 SAIL Award winners were also announced during the opening ceremony. Keynote speeches were delivered by Robin Li, Co-Founder & Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Baidu, Ma Huateng, Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Tencent, Joseph Sifakis, Turing Award winner, Mei Hong, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Viktor Mayer- Schönberger at Oxford University, Hu Houkun, Vice Chairman & Rotating Chairman of Huawei, Roland Busch, President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG, Dong Mingzhu, Chairperson of the Board and President of Gree Electric Appliances, and Zhou Hongyi, Founder and Chairman of 360 Group.

The topics of their talks included AI transforming the future of humanity, the challenges of moving toward broad AI application, AI open innovation and AI enabling the digital transformation of cities.