WIC held the Symposium on Opportunities and Challenges in Developing International Standards for Responsible AI

The World Internet Conference Specialized Committee on Artificial Intelligence (WIC SC on AI) convened a symposium in Beijing on May 15 under the theme Opportunities and Challenges in Developing International Standards for Responsible AI. 

The event gathered over 30 experts and representatives from international organizations, standardization bodies, research institutes and leading tech enterprises, who participated both on-site and online.

They engaged in in-depth discussions on global trends, practical progress and cooperative avenues for responsible AI international standards, while highlighting inclusive approaches such as open-source ecosystem development.

Moderating proceedings was Wei Kai, vice chair of the SC on AI, co-leader of the Standards Program and director of the AI Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), who also outlined the 2026 work agenda for the standards initiative. 

John Higgins, co-leader of the Standards Program and chair of the International Association for AI Governance, shared his insights on the objectives of the year.

During the keynote session, experts from the Seconded European Standardization Expert in China, the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance, the Alibaba AI Research Center and the CAICT examined a range of global trends in AI development and governance. 

Their presentations covered industry practice, regional governance, collaboration of international organizations and the development of open-source ecosystems. They noted that open-source, by enhancing technological transparency and lowering barriers to adoption, is fostering collaborative innovation and joint security capacity building among developers worldwide. Meanwhile, the open-source ecosystem is becoming increasingly integrated with international standardization efforts, with the two deeply coupled and mutually reinforcing. This provides important support for advancing the trustworthy development, inclusive application, and global collaboration of artificial intelligence.

The industry exchange session saw experts from leading tech organizations share their insights on market opportunities, implementation paths and real-world challenges in developing responsible AI standards based on corporate practice.

Experts noted that, given the rapid technological iteration and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, all parties should further strengthen open communication and pragmatic collaboration, in particular by making open-source ecosystem development a key pathway to promoting inclusive and responsible AI. 

Experts believe that the open-source ecosystem helps pool industrial resources, expand application scenarios, and play a significant role in areas such as cybersecurity, data governance, model security, and computing power coordination. In the future, by leveraging open resources, efforts can be synergized in standard research, experience sharing, and industrial practices to collectively advance the development of international AI standards.

These experts were from organizations including the British Standards Institution, Baidu Group, iFLYTEK, Lenovo Group, China Unicom Smart City Research Institute, Honor, Sugon Information Industry Co., Ltd., Sangfor Technologies Inc., SenseTime and 4Paradigm. 

A WIC official noted that the consensus and case studies generated during the symposium laid a solid foundation for the committee's upcoming thematic session at the ITU AI for Good Global Summit this July. 

Moving forward, the committee will continue to leverage its position as an international, open and institutionalized platform to carry out dialogues on responsible AI standards under the Standards Program. The committee is ready to play its due part in balancing AI innovation with safe governance by consolidating professional consensus and facilitating the commercialization of research outcomes, the WIC official said.