WAIC 2025: The Future of Large Models — Paradigm Shift or Open-Source Tide, Tech Race at the Edge}

WAIC 2025   World Artificial Intelligence Conference

Forum: July 26-28, 2025, Shanghai Expo Center

Exhibition: July 26-29, 2025, Shanghai Expo Exhibition Hall

Amid the rapid rise of large models and intelligent agents, science faces a historic paradigm shift.

Mathematician Terence Tao once said: "AI and the Fields Medal are just a research student apart." This reflects scientists' complex feelings—hopeful about AI as a partner in uncovering natural mysteries, yet aware that true insight still relies on human intuition and independent thinking.

Similarly, young Chinese scholar Wang Hong and colleagues recently achieved a breakthrough proof related to the three-dimensional hanging valley conjecture, gaining global attention. Tao praised the work, which opens new avenues for long-unsolved problems in analysis. Wang Hong’s success reminds us: in the abstract and subtle world of science, inspiration remains irreplaceable, but AI is gradually becoming a potential assistant and pattern observer in these multidimensional deductions.

This mix of excitement and restraint reflects the scientific community’s true feelings about the "AI for Science" wave. In genomics, cancer prediction, drug discovery, meteorology, and disaster forecasting, AI is rapidly detecting patterns, verifying hypotheses, and generating new solutions. Yet, when it comes to Navier-Stokes equations, Riemann hypothesis, or fundamental natural laws, scientists still ask: Does AI truly understand the universe’s deep order, or is it just "statistically lucky" in vast samples?

Meanwhile, high-performance computing and well-adapted algorithms are concentrated in top institutions and tech giants, leaving young researchers, basic labs, and startups with limited resources. Open data sharing and reusable models are urgently needed, but data barriers, compliance issues, and uneven computing resources form invisible walls blocking many researchers.

With these philosophical questions and practical challenges, WAIC 2025 launches a "Mathematics and Science Questions" theme in its scientific intelligence section. This year, eight high-level forums will explore answers through interdisciplinary debates.

Chinese Academy of Sciences: AI for Science

At the "AI in Life Sciences" forum, CAS will release the Panshi Scientific Foundation Model, showing AI’s shift from isolated breakthroughs to foundational support across the entire research chain. Two forums will discuss: "AI for Science: How to Integrate General Intelligence and Domain Experts?" and "Challenges in Life Sciences: Using AI to Discover New Laws and Reverse Aging?"

SMEI Mathematical and Computing Research Institute: The Source of All — Mathematics

At the "Mathematics and AI" forum, SMEI will focus on how AI can become a true thinking engine for algebraic geometry, Navier-Stokes equations, and other profound problems. Debates will explore whether AI can prove itself or become the next great mathematician, from Gödel’s incompleteness to generative reasoning boundaries.

This is both scientific curiosity and rational self-questioning. People hope AI will evolve from assistant to collaborator, but true understanding and co-creation require ongoing experiments, debates, and collaboration to break through scientific barriers.

Research Paradigm Innovation: AI for Science Forum Series

Eight forums include topics like: Can AI transition from tool to co-researcher? The future of mathematical and life sciences, meteorology, and general scientific intelligence.

Kickoff of the Golden Age of Scientific Intelligence

July 26, 13:30-18:00, Shanghai Expo Center

This forum focuses on "Intelligence & Science: The Power of Paradigm Shift," gathering core scientific intelligence forces and young researchers to discuss research computing, algorithm co-creation, and AI’s evolution from tool to partner, aiming to accelerate the golden era of scientific intelligence.

Future of AI: Superintelligence and Co-Creation

July 26, 13:30-18:00, Shanghai Expo Center

Centered on "From Scientific General Intelligence (SGI) to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)," the forum features Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, academicians, university presidents, and young scientists discussing cutting-edge topics, major achievements, and future directions.

Mathematics Questions Forum

July 26, 14:00-17:00, Shanghai Expo Center

This forum explores "Mathematics and AI: Mutual Empowerment," with top global universities and research institutes discussing how algebraic geometry, differential geometry, Navier-Stokes equations, and AI algorithms can deepen their integration, supporting mathematical foundations for AI.

Roundtable on Mathematics and AI

July 26, 14:00-17:00, Shanghai Expo Center 619

Leading mathematicians worldwide will engage in deep dialogue on the intersection of mathematics and AI, questioning whether current AI’s computational power can feed back into mathematical research and drive paradigm shifts, from logic to generative inference.

This is both curiosity and rational inquiry. People hope AI will evolve from assistant to partner, but understanding and co-creation require persistent experimentation and debate to overcome scientific barriers.

AI in Life Sciences

July 26, 14:00-17:30, Shanghai Xuhui West Bund Meijiang Hotel 3rd Floor

This forum focuses on "AI for Life Science," gathering top Chinese and international institutions to discuss big data, foundational models, precision medicine, and genomics. It will unveil the CAS Panshi Scientific Foundation Model.

Galaxy Wisdom & Scientific Intelligence Open Cooperation

July 26, 14:00-17:30, Shanghai Expo Center 517

This forum emphasizes open collaboration, gathering Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, academicians, industry leaders, and young researchers to discuss frontier innovations, industry practices, and ecosystem building. The "Galaxy Wisdom Scientific Intelligence Open Platform" will be launched to provide comprehensive services for domain scientists and AI developers, covering high-quality data, accelerated computing, open models, and multi-agent reasoning.

Weather AI for Early Warning

July 26, 15:00-18:00, Shanghai Expo West Bund Four Seasons Hall

This forum explores "Weather AI Empowering Early Warning for All," with international organizations, meteorological agencies, research institutions, and tech companies working together to enhance global weather AI applications and trust in early warning systems.

AI Science Questions: Evolution and Challenges in Life Sciences

July 27 morning, Chinese Academy of Sciences

This debate will focus on topics like "Universal Intelligence and Domain Expert Integration" and "Using AI to Discover New Laws and Reverse Aging," gathering AI and interdisciplinary experts to discuss transformative impacts on scientific paradigms.

Mathematics & AI: From Gödel to GPT

July 27 afternoon, Shanghai Math Center & Shanghai Interdisciplinary Institute

This session explores whether AI can prove itself mathematically, with top mathematicians debating logic, generative inference, and the potential for AI to push mathematical boundaries, reflecting on the relationship between math and AI.

This is a global inquiry: do we have enough mathematical language and systems to truly understand AI? Can AI’s computational power feed back into math research to revolutionize paradigms? These questions will be explored through expert discussions, aiming to bridge theory and practice, and to illuminate how thinking can light the future of intelligence.

Global Think Tank Gathering

International organizations: WMO, UNEP, ITU, UNDRR, IFRC, ECMWF, Typhoon Committee, SMEI, BRICS New Development Bank, etc.

Domestic organizations: CAS, China Meteorological Administration, National Satellite Meteorological Center, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, CMAA, Shanghai Institute of Science and Intelligence, etc.

Domestic companies: Huawei Cloud, China Tower, Zhongke Technology, SenseTime, and others.

Overseas universities: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Australian National University, University of the Free State (South Africa), University of Catalonia, etc.

Chinese universities: Peking University, Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China, Tongji University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Wuhan University, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, etc.

Key guests include: WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo, China Meteorological Administration Director Chen Zhenlin, Fields Medalist Terence Tao, Academicians, university presidents, and top scientists from around the world.

Major Announcements

In the science and intelligence section, many future-oriented achievements will be unveiled, including the CAS Panshi Scientific Foundation Model, the China Meteorological Administration’s space weather and multi-disaster early warning models, and the "Galaxy Wisdom Scientific Intelligence Open Platform" jointly launched by Shanghai Institute of Science and Intelligence and Fudan University.

*Schedule and guests are subject to on-site arrangements.