The Center for Global AI Innovative Governance was inaugurated at the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 26. Established by Fudan University with support from the Shanghai Municipal Government, the center aims to shape the future of responsible AI development through international collaboration.
The center is led by President of Fudan University JIN Li, with Vice President of Fudan University CHEN Zhimin serving as Executive Director.
Rooted in China’s experience but with a global perspective, this center focuses on capacity building, governance coordination, and providing international public goods to nations worldwide, including Global South countries, thus making contributions to a widely accepted framework for ethical AI governance.
UN Leaders Visit Fudan to Advance AI Governance Collaboration
To gain in-depth understanding of Fudan University’s advancements in artificial intelligence and the development progress of the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance, UN officials Amandeep Singh Gill, Under-Secretary-General and Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, and Armida Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary led separate delegations to the university on July 27.
Their visit also marked the first high-level contact between the United Nations and Fudan University on AI governance, laying the groundwork for future collaboration.
JIN Li met with Gill for a discussion on the frontiers of AI and deeper UN-Fudan cooperation. He stressed that Fudan values the UN’s steady leadership in global AI governance, adding that both sides share the conviction that AI must be technically excellent, ethically grounded and broadly beneficial. Fudan will keep pushing AI education and expanding AI-for-Science in materials, life and earth sciences—fields tightly linked to the SDGs—while working hand-in-hand with the UN. Gill called the visit the starting point for future joint work and said he hopes Fudan’s governance experience will help build AI capacity worldwide.
CHEN Zhimin met with Alisjahbana, briefing her on Fudan’s AI teaching, research and tech transfer. He spelled out the new center’s mission to close the “intelligence divide” and supply AI public goods, and ran through its early deliverables. Both sides explored deeper collaboration with ESCAP, and Alisjahbana voiced hope that the new center will pioneer new industry-academia models for governing global AI.
At Fudan Development Institute, Gill’s and Alisjahbana’s teams reviewed the new center’s setup, exchanged ideas with resident experts, and toured Fudan’s latest exhibition on AI development and governance.
They also heard PENG Huisheng, assistant president of Fudan University, and other experts explain Fudan’s broader AI roadmap, focusing on the MOSS large language model, AI-for-Science microscopy breakthroughs, and AI applications in biology, medicine and weather forecasting at Fudan University Science & Technology Innovation Museum.
Gill watched the final pitches of the “AI for Peace” track at the 2025 Rong Chang Cup Youth Innovation Competition on Global Governance (YICGG), praising students for their creative, peace-and-security-oriented AI solutions.
At the Shanghai Academy of AI for Science, Alisjahbana received a detailed briefing from Assistant President of Fudan University and the Academy’s Chair WU Libo and the Academy’s Director QI Yuan on the academy’s newest AI tools for weather prediction, medical diagnosis, sustainable development and cultural-heritage preservation.
Building a World-Class Platform for AI governance
In recent years, Fudan University has turbo-charged international collaboration in artificial intelligence. Through the AI for Science Innovation Forum, Shanghai Forum and Shanghai Mater Forum on Science — and via partnerships that span every continent — it pools the planet’s best AI minds.
Joint teams have already rolled out vertical large models for weather, genomics and biomedicine, putting AI4S tools in the hands of the Global South. Meanwhile, flagship youth programs — UNDP’s Youth Innovation Competition on Global Governance (YICGG), the World AI4S Prize and Shanghai Summer School (BRICS program) — are grooming the next generation of AI leaders.
Going forward, Fudan will use the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance to convert research into action. Drawing on its strengths in AI governance, interdisciplinary science and worldwide networks, the university will host international forums, thematic workshops and joint studies, while running training courses, student exchanges and tech-transfer projects. The goal is a Shanghai-based hub that links China to the world — accelerating rule-making and capacity-building under the UN umbrella, with special support for the Global South, until a truly global governance framework for AI is in place.
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Writer: WANG Mengqi
Editor: LI Yijie
