Tsinghua's Institute for AI International Governance hosts WAIC 2026 forum and unveils Agent Safety Governance Framework
Tsinghua’s WAIC 2026 forum brought together more than 300 participants and launched an AI agent safety governance framework.
Summary
The institute for international AI governance at Tsinghua University (I-AIIG) describes a forum it organized on 18 July 2026 at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Titled "From Consensus to Action", the event brought together more than 300 people from governments, UN agencies, academia, industry and civil society. Partners in organizing it were the International AI Governance Association (IAGA) and a United Nations University hub, with UN offices supporting.
The agenda included opening remarks, a leaders' dialogue, report launches, a keynote and two roundtables. Topics included mechanisms under the UN Global Digital Compact, AI ethics, capacity-building and cooperation among stakeholders. According to the institute, the forum came soon after the first UN dialogue on AI governance and the creation of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization.
Several items were unveiled. A consultation draft of the World AI Capacity Index Report proposes one model for judging national AI capability. Drawing on data from 92 countries, it finds large disparities and says AI development outpaces governance in many places. An Agent Safety Governance Framework (Version 1.0) offers a structure for spotting risks from AI agents. An automobile AI safety testing and rating programme, a global governance trends report, a research series on AI use cases in China and a youth innovation competition were also announced. The trends report concludes that governance is moving from high-level principles toward implementation and assurance.
In his keynote, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo argued that AI should be judged by whether it improves lives and should strengthen human abilities rather than replace them. Roundtables covered interoperability, standards, capacity-building and China's role. It was the institute's fourth consecutive WAIC forum, drawing over 150,000 online views, and its largest to date.