The World Internet Conference Specialized Committee on Artificial Intelligence (WIC SC on AI) hosted a special forum under the theme “Embodied AI: Leading a New Paradigm of AI Development” on March 3 in Barcelona, during the Mobile World Congress.

Niu Yibing, vice-minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, attended and addressed the event, highlighting the fact that embodied AI — as a new paradigm in AI development — is driving the transition of AI from the digital world to the physical world. Given the accelerating global industrial development, he emphasized the need to strengthen digital infrastructure, foster an open and collaborative ecosystem for innovation and create a governance framework to ensure secure and sustainable development. 

He called for collective efforts to promote the steady and inclusive growth of embodied AI — empowering industries and benefiting society.

Notable figures addressing the event included Francis Gurry, vice-chair of the WIC and former director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization; Mohamed Ben Amor, director general of the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization; and Lara Dewar, chief marketing officer of the GSMA.

Others who gave speeches were Schahram Dustdar, co-chair of the WIC SC on AI, a member of Academia Europaea and president of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance; Zhang Dong, executive vice president of China Mobile; Nakul Duggal, executive vice president and group general manager at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.; and Wang Xiang, senior vice president at ZTE.

The forum also featured a roundtable moderated by John Higgins, co-lead of the Standards Program of the WIC SC on AI and chairman of the International AI Governance Association. It was participated by Liu Dong, director of China Future Internet Engineering Center and Internet Hall of Fame Inductee; Jayne Stancavage, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs at Intel Corporation; Emanuela Girardi, president of ADRA; and Qu Zhenbin, chief solutions architect for AI+ at Alibaba Cloud.

They discussed the opportunities and challenges emerging in the embodied AI industry.

The participants agreed that embodied AI is rapidly transitioning from research and development to large-scale implementation and is now a key focus in AI development. 

They stressed the importance of deepening international cooperation to foster a healthy, diverse and inclusive global industry ecosystem and build a secure collaborative governance framework. These efforts are crucial to developing safe and reliable embodied AI and ensuring technological progress benefits humanity, they noted. 

They expressed the hope that the WIC SC on AI would continue to play a vital role in building global consensus and create a shared, intelligent future.

The forum was attended by over 100 representatives, including WIC SC on AI members, WIC members and representatives from international organizations, government agencies and institutions in the embodied AI field.