China’s Zhongguancun Forum to focus on AI development and renewed international cooperation amid ChatGPT frenzy

The Zhongguancun Forum, a state-backed annual tech event held in Beijing’s answer to Silicon Valley, will focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and international cooperation, government officials said on Monday.

The six-day conference, to kick off on May 25 in the Zhongguancun area in Beijing’s Haidian district, comes at a time when OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT has placed AI under the spotlight as China’s tech rivalry with the United States ramps up.

The forum, which has a theme of “Open Cooperation for a Shared Future”, will focus on the “frontiers of science and technology development, specifically AI, quantum science and brain-computer interfaces”, according to Beijing vice mayor Yu Yingjie, who spoke at a media briefing on Monday.

Yu added that the event will “deepen [China’s] international openness and cooperation”, with guests from nearly 200 foreign governments and organisations across more than 80 countries and regions expected to attend. The number of foreign speakers will account for more than 40 per cent of the total, he said.

The event’s more than 650 exhibitors include German industrial technology giant Siemens and healthcare company Merck Sharp & Dohme, widely knowns as MSD, among 120 other foreign exhibitors, according to Yu.