11/5/2026
While much of the American internet is focused on the 2026 midterm elections and the expected Democratic wave, another major story is unfolding on the Chinese internet.
The World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit is taking place from November 2 to November 5, 2026, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, China.
Instead of being confined by the news and perspectives immediately around them, I hope my children will 胸怀天下，放眼世界 — keep the world in their hearts and look beyond their immediate surroundings.
The summit has attracted considerable attention on the Chinese internet, particularly among technology professionals and people interested in AI development.
This year's theme is:
“Open Source, Openness, Co-construction and Sharing — Jointly Build a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace.”
Approximately 1,800 delegates from 138 countries and regions are attending.
A headline that caught my attention
One of the most widely discussed developments was a new ranking from OpenRouter, a platform that tracks AI model usage.
According to the reported data, five Chinese AI models occupied the top five positions in global weekly token call volume.
DeepSeek V4.1-Flash reportedly reached 33.6 trillion tokens in one week, ranking first worldwide.
Many Chinese netizens interpreted this as a sign that Chinese open-source AI models are becoming major players in the global AI ecosystem, rather than simply trying to catch up.
Of course, a ranking on one platform does not tell us everything about the global AI industry. But it does provide an interesting indication of how widely Chinese models are being used and how quickly the landscape is changing.
Three developments worth watching
1. AI competition is moving beyond the race for bigger models
The discussion is increasingly focused on how AI can become more accessible, useful, and integrated into real-world applications.
Rather than competing only over model parameters, companies are paying greater attention to open-source development, building ecosystems, and industrial deployment (产业落地).
Alibaba's Cai Chongxin emphasized the importance of open source in helping AI spread and deliver practical value.
This is an important shift.
The value of AI is not determined only by how powerful a model is, but also by how many people can use it, what problems it can solve, and how effectively it can be incorporated into everyday work and industry.
2. AI agents are moving toward cooperation
Twenty major organizations, including the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, reportedly jointly released a self-regulatory framework for AI agents.
They announced plans to develop shared infrastructure that would allow different AI agents to discover, connect, and cooperate across platforms.
This points toward a future in which AI systems do not operate only as isolated tools.
Instead, different agents may be able to communicate and work together, potentially making AI more useful in increasingly complex tasks.
The challenge will be ensuring that such cooperation is reliable, secure, and responsible.
3. Open-source AI is becoming more tangible
The summit also opened China's first dedicated open-source ecosystem experience hall.
Rather than discussing open source only in abstract terms, visitors can experience demonstrations and explore how open-source technologies work.
This is another indication that the industry is trying to connect technological development with practical applications and broader participation.
Open source is not simply about making technology available. It can also encourage collaboration, allow developers to build upon one another's work, and expand the range of people who participate in innovation.
What interests me most
What interests me most is not simply how Chinese AI models are performing.
It is how quickly technology is changing the world and how interconnected that world has become.
Living in the United States, my children naturally encounter American news and perspectives every day. But I hope they will also pay attention to what is happening elsewhere.
The world is too big, and its developments too interconnected for us to understand it through only one country's news.
I hope my children will look beyond the country they live in, beyond the news that dominates their social media, and beyond their immediate surroundings.
I hope they will develop a broader understanding of the world, remain curious about different perspectives, and learn from developments wherever they occur.
As the Chinese saying goes, 胸怀天下，放眼世界 — keep the world in your heart and look beyond your immediate surroundings.
For me, that is not simply to follow the news, but to develop the curiosity and openness to understand a world that is much larger than the one immediately around them.
