The 2026 iFlytek Global 1024 Developer Festival opened on October 22 at the China National Convention Center Phase II in Beijing under the theme "Unleash Productivity, Unleash Imagination." The main forum released iFlytek Spark X2.6 and a new cloud-plus-edge collaboration plan, showcasing advances in intelligent speech and multimodal human-computer interaction. Science expos in Beijing and Hefei present AI applications in education, healthcare, office and automotive fields, with eight industry sub-forums on industrial deployment and an upgrade to the "Token+Agent" Spark developer ecosystem.
Learning Commons, a nonprofit backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, has launched an open platform for K-12 that provides open knowledge graphs and AI evaluators. More than 70 partners, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have joined the effort. Learning Commons president Sandra Liu Huang explained on the EdSurge podcast how the platform works and why some districts are building their own tools on this infrastructure instead of waiting for commercial vendors.
Smart education solutions provider NetClass Technology (Nasdaq: NTCL) has officially launched its first interactive AI companion product LinkeeBot through Linkee AI Company Limited, a joint venture in which NetClass holds a 40% stake. The product uses natural language processing to provide real-time voice conversation, interactive support, schedule management and efficiency reminders, and is powered by a large language model that can chat in fluent English and Chinese. It targets all age groups, with a focus on university students, young professionals and Gen Z consumers, in Southeast Asia, mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan, and is currently on sale through its dedicated website.
