This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2025 shows a scene during the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit opened on Friday, with global delegates gathering in the ancient water town of Wuzhen in east China's Zhejiang Province to explore pathways to an open, secure and inclusive digital future.

This year's edition, themed "Forging an Open, Cooperative, Secure and Inclusive Future of Digital Intelligence -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," includes 24 sub-forums on topics such as the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, digital economy, AI and data governance, along with a series of activities.

Noting innovation, collaboration and trust as key to ensuring an open, inclusive and secure digital future, John Hoffman, CEO of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), told the opening ceremony that: "If we get it right, we will unlock the full potential of the digital to enrich people's lives around the world, leaving no one behind."

Hoffman called for collaboration between public and private sectors to address the challenge of the usage gap in mobile internet connectivity -- over half of the populations of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa live in areas with mobile internet coverage but do not use it.

His call was echoed by Li Junhua, UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, who emphasized the transformative potential of digital technologies, as well as the urgency of mitigating their risks and bridging the persisting digital divide, making the remarks at the main forum.

Given that "2.6 billion people worldwide remain offline and excluded from the benefits of the digital transformation," Li called for strengthened cooperation among all stakeholders to invest in digital infrastructure, strengthen digital skills and build effective global internet governance.

This collective action is essential to forging a safer, more inclusive digital future, and to ensuring no one is left behind, particularly vulnerable groups, he said.

Francis Gurry, vice chair of the WIC and former director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, commended China for its "enduring commitment to multilateralism and global cooperation" in the field of science and technology, noting that such efforts are especially valuable at a time when multilateral governance is under strain.

Gurry also highlighted China's proposal to establish a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization as a timely and effective step toward addressing global governance challenges in AI, given the rapid development of the technology.

This sense of urgency is shared widely among participants of this year's WIC Wuzhen Summit. While recognizing the immense potential of AI in transforming industries and advancing social progress, they have also warned of its associated risks and called for action to ensure the technology is harnessed for safe and inclusive purposes.

Hoffman said that while AI "most likely will be one of the most transformative developments in many generations, we have to be careful and build it responsibly."

He noted that the GSMA launched the Responsible AI Maturity Roadmap initiative last year to help global telecom operators "ensure AI solutions are designed, developed and deployed with ethics at their core."

Eddie Wu, CEO of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, said that he is bullish about the development of AI, as well as its potential to bring unprecedented advances in productivity and liberate humanity.

"At the dawn of the intelligent era, the tech industry should take a more forward-looking approach to supporting vulnerable groups and make digital technologies a powerful enabler for everybody to bridge the digital divide," Wu added.

Qwen, Alibaba's open-source foundational large language model, won the 2025 WIC Award for Pioneering Science and Technology on Thursday, alongside 16 other international projects, including Microsoft's coding agent GitHub Copilot, as well as the key technologies and applications of China's BDS-3 satellite navigation signals. They were honored as breakthroughs in frontier fields such as AI models, the intelligent Internet of Things, embodied intelligence and quantum computing.

During Friday's opening ceremony, a distinguished contribution award was presented to recognize individuals and enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to the global internet landscape.

This year's WIC Wuzhen Summit, which has drawn more than 1,600 participants from over 130 countries and regions, will run through Sunday.