Turing Award Laureates Lead the Charge: China's Top AI Models Unite at 2026 Zhiyuan Conference to Shape the Next AI Frontier
The 2026 Zhiyuan Conference, held June 12-13 at Beijing's Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, brings together Turing Award winners, leading Chinese AI model companies, and global experts. Focusing on agents and world models, the conference explores AI's transition from digital to physical worlds. It features 25 forums, an AI agent assistant for attendees, and new sessions on AI-native education and token economy.
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Key points
- 2026 Zhiyuan Conference takes place June 12-13 in Beijing, featuring Turing Award laureates and China's top AI model developers.
- Key themes: intelligent agents and world models, bridging AI from digital to physical reality.
- New forums include AI-native education and token economy; first-ever AI agent assistant for participants.
- Over 200 talks across 25 forums with global industry and academic leaders.
Why it matters
This matters because 2026 Zhiyuan Conference takes place June 12-13 in Beijing, featuring Turing Award laureates and China's top AI model developers.
Technical impact
May affect model selection, inference cost, product capability, and evaluation benchmarks.
The 2026 Zhiyuan Conference, scheduled for June 12-13 at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing, marks a pivotal gathering for the global AI community. With Turing Award laureates headlining and China's premier large model teams assembling, the event aims to chart the next trajectory of artificial intelligence as it moves from digital domains into the physical world.
This year's conference underscores two core technological trends: intelligent agents and world models. Agents empower large models with autonomous planning, tool invocation, and self-iteration, while world models provide AI with an understanding of physical laws and environmental prediction. The conference will host 25 forums and over 200 speeches, blending academic rigor with industry insights.
Notable participants include multiple Turing Award winners—pioneers in reinforcement learning, cryptography, and systems science—who will share their visions for next-generation AI. Alongside them, over 40 CEOs, founders, and chief scientists from leading AI enterprises, including Google, Meta, NVIDIA, Alibaba, Tencent, Zhipu AI, Stepfun, and MiniMax, will converge. Representatives from top universities like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Peking University, Tsinghua, and Renmin University will also contribute.
Key forums will delve into world models and agents, exploring how AI can understand, predict, and interact with the real world. Sessions on embodied AI and humanoid robots will showcase how AI gains physical form. New this year are forums on AI-native education—examining how AI reshapes learning and human capabilities—and token economy, which redefines production metrics in the age of intelligence.
For the first time, the conference introduces an AI agent assistant that helps attendees navigate sessions, take notes, and capture insights across parallel forums. The event also features a youth flash talk session for researchers born after 1997.
The 2026 Zhiyuan Conference promises a comprehensive view of AI's future—from breakthrough technologies to societal impact and economic transformation. Registration is open at the official website.