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Pang Pei's Team Releases WACI and WAIG Annual Reports: AI's View of Countries and Cities is Shaping a New Competitive Landscape

While the world still measures a country or city's competitiveness through GDP, per capita income, and infrastructure rankings, a new dimension is emerging—who is seen, trusted, and prioritized in the cognitive world of AI large models?

Pang Pei, a member of the Cultural Committee of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party, President of the China Vision GEO Research Institute, and chief designer of the AI Cognitive Index (AICI) evaluation system, recently released the annual reports of the World AI City Competitiveness Index (WACI) and the World AI Governance Index (WAIG). For the first time, these reports use real output data from AI large models as the sole evaluation basis, systematically quantifying the competitive landscape of global cities and nations in the AI cognitive world.

"If GDP measures a country's economic output in the physical world, then the AI Cognitive Index measures its 'cognitive output' in the AI world," said Pang Pei. "These two dimensions are jointly forming a complete picture of national comprehensive competitiveness in the AI era."

I. Cities Through AI's Eyes: Rankings Don't Align with GDP

WACI covers 200 major cities worldwide, creating a three-dimensional "AI cognitive portrait" for each city based on four dimensions: cognitive visibility, industry labeling power, recommendation advantage, and cognitive resilience.

The inaugural report reveals a striking finding: AI's ranking of cities does not fully align with GDP rankings. Some cities with comparable economic sizes show visibility gaps of several times in AI cognition. Certain cities that are not prominent in traditional economic indicators gain significant advantages in AI recommendations due to distinct industry labels and a steady supply of authoritative sources.

"AI evaluates cities not by economic scale, but by the clarity of their industry labels," Pang Pei analyzed. "Hefei's rise to an AI first-tier city in WACI is driven not by GDP size, but by the deep association of its highly communicable label—'the boldest venture capital city'—in AI. Guiyang, with its 'China's Data Valley' label, achieves significantly higher industry recognition in AI than cities of similar economic scale. The clarity of industry labels is becoming a more decisive variable for urban competitiveness than economic size."

Meanwhile, some cities with considerable economic scale score low in WACI. The core constraint is not economic size, but that their city image in AI is highly dependent on narratives of surrounding mega-cities, lacking independent cognitive anchors.

"Being close to a super city is both a locational advantage and a potential cognitive trap," Pang Pei noted. "When a city's brand is completely overshadowed by a neighboring mega-city, it gets folded into someone else's narrative on the AI cognitive map. When global investors and talent learn about cities through AI, what they see is not what you actually have, but what AI thinks you are known for."

II. Countries Through AI's Eyes: A 'Cognitive Deficit' in Governance

WAIG covers 50 major economies worldwide, for the first time listing "governance substance" and "governance cognition" as dual core evaluation metrics. Governance substance measures a country's actual institutional construction in AI governance—legal and policy frameworks, standards and technical norms, institutional regulatory capacity, etc. Governance cognition measures the cognitive influence and recommendation ranking of a country's AI governance achievements in global mainstream AI large models.

The inaugural report reveals a "cognitive deficit" phenomenon worthy of attention from policymakers worldwide: some countries invest heavily in AI governance, with numerous laws and regulations enacted and regulatory bodies established, but these governance achievements are not accurately recognized or positively presented by global AI. In recommendation-based queries like "best practices in AI governance," these countries are far less likely to be prioritized by AI than their actual governance levels warrant.

"In an era where global users increasingly rely on AI for information, whether a country's AI governance capabilities are accurately recognized by global AI is becoming a key component of its soft power," said Pang Pei. "Countries that perform well may not be perceived as good by AI. This gap between governance substance and governance cognition constitutes a 'governance cognitive deficit' in the AI era. Bridging this deficit is as important as strengthening governance itself."

The report also shows that dual leaders in governance cognition and governance substance hold comprehensive advantages in international AI governance discourse, investment attractiveness, and talent flow. This finding provides a new analytical dimension for countries to optimize their governance strategies in the AI era.

III. Cognitive GDP: A New Yardstick for Measuring National Future Competitiveness

Based on the inaugural data from WACI and WAIG, Pang Pei further elaborates on the concept of "Cognitive GDP"—the total cognitive output of an entity in the AI world, equal to the product of AI presence, trust, dissemination, and influence.

"Just as GDP provides a common language for countries to measure economic output, the introduction of Cognitive GDP aims to give the world a new yardstick for measuring cognitive competitiveness in the AI era," Pang Pei explained. "A country may rank high in traditional GDP but lag significantly in Cognitive GDP—such a 'cognitive lowland' is itself a crucial piece of strategic intelligence. Countries rich in cultural resources but low in digitization may face 'cognitive underrepresentation'—a major power in the real world but a weak one in the AI world."

This judgment carries profound strategic implications. In an era where AI is increasingly the core information gateway for global investment decisions, talent migration, and consumer choices, a country's Cognitive GDP—the frequency with which its culture is cited by AI, the extent to which its standards are used as references, and the probability that its narratives are positively presented—is becoming a new dimension for measuring comprehensive national power.

IV. From Assessment to Construction: Urban Cognitive Competitiveness Enhancement in Practice

Pang Pei revealed that urban AI cognitive competitiveness enhancement plans based on the WACI framework have been implemented in several Chinese cities. "Through the WACI four-dimensional radar chart, city managers can clearly see their city's strengths and weaknesses in the AI cognitive world—whether it is widely recognized but with vague industry labels, or has clear industry labels but insufficient international visibility. Behind every score lies a specific direction for improvement."

From deploying authoritative sources to publishing industry white papers, from providing multilingual content to hosting international forums, a systematic methodology for building urban AI cognitive infrastructure is being refined through practice.

V. Conclusion

From a city's industry labeling power to a country's governance cognition, from the quantitative framework of Cognitive GDP to the systematic construction of cognitive competitiveness—the AI Cognitive Index series is providing countries and cities with a new coordinate system for competitiveness assessment in the AI era.

"In the next decade, a country or city's comprehensive competitiveness will no longer depend solely on resource endowments and economic output in the physical world, but also on presence, trust, and recommendation power in the AI cognitive world," said Pang Pei. "The AI Cognitive Index is precisely a new yardstick for this coming era—one that can be seen, measured, and built upon."