The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026 was held in Shanghai from 17–20 July and brought global attention to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the increasingly important question of who gets to shape the rules governing it. This analysis examines the alignment between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech and Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eng. Eranga Weeraratne’s speech across key themes, including inclusive global AI governance, the role of the Global South, international cooperation, and AI safety and security. 
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026 was held in Shanghai from 17–20 July and brought global attention to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the increasingly important question of who gets to shape the rules governing it. This analysis examines the alignment between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech and Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eng. Eranga Weeraratne’s speech across key themes, including inclusive global AI governance, the role of the Global South, international cooperation, and AI safety and security. 
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager and Team Lead for Data, Algorithms, and Policy (DAP), Merl Chandana, was interviewed on NewsFirst Sri Lanka’s Face to Face programme on 9 August 2026. The interview focused on the wonders and dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI), covering a recent cybersecurity incident where an experimental agentic AI model developed by OpenAI was manipulated to execute multiple attacks on Hugging Face. 
On 6 November 2025, the Centre for Communication Governance (CCG) at National Law University Delhi hosted a hybrid, day-long event on “Operationalising AI Safety” at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. LIRNEasia’s CEO, Helani Galpaya, was invited as a panellist to the main panel discussion, “Operationalising AI Safety”, which explored the conceptions of AI safety, what it involves, and how it can be operationalised, particularly through AISIs.