2026-09-12 20:05
The technology industry has never lacked a stage for "ranking according to seniority", but this September, the 2026 Inclusion · Bund Conference held by the Huangpu River in Shanghai is breaking conventions.
Walking through the conference venue, the reporter felt a strong narrative shift: in a new technological cycle, the barrier of qualifications is collapsing, and the future is being rewritten by the first batch of AI natives. This is mainly reflected in the fact that the spotlight of the main forum and insights forum is no longer only reserved for industry giants who have achieved success, but is aimed at a group of "trendsetters" in their twenties and thirties; Super Individual Day brings a multifaceted and vivid portrayal of the 'undefined self'; The AI Coding Hackathon competition breaks age and background restrictions, with nearly 70% of the tens of thousands of participants being minors, and the youngest contestant being only 6 years old.
When the leader of a unicorn born in the 2000s and a geek born in the 20th create a trend on the same stage
On the stage of the Insight Forum, 22-year-old entrepreneurial leader Chen Boyuan, starting from reinforcement learning and world models, joined many industry leaders to ask how AI can truly enter the real physical world. During his undergraduate studies in the Peiyuan class at Peking University, he founded "Inverse Matrix Technology" and secured over $100 million in seed++round financing in just six months, becoming one of the most highly valued post-2000s AI companies.
9-year-old contestant Luo Ange, who doesn't understand programming, collaborated with tens of thousands of participants in the Bund Hackathon using natural language and AI to turn her ancient pottery experience learned in a deep mountain summer camp in Jiangxi into an online running "Soil Laboratory", winning the first prize in the Hackathon competition.
From a 9-year-old elementary school student to a 22-year-old young helmsman, the Bund Conference keenly captured the generational change belonging to the "AI natives" - when the threshold of big models is smoothed out, whoever is more imaginative and has more sensitivity to solving specific problems will become the leader of the times.
1 computer, 0 employees, super individuals are displayed in batches on the Bund
If the previous technological revolution was optimizing old organizations, then the advent of generative AI is giving birth to a group of "AI new humans". At the "Super Individual Day" specially organized by the Bund Conference, 17 super individuals made their debut on stage, showing people the amazing tension that technology gives to individuals. The "One Person Company" is being mass manifested here.
Zhao Chunxiang, an independent developer with a background in chemistry and a history as a screenwriter, single handedly used AI to create "The Book of the Stomach", which rose to the top three of Apple's paid list and launched a platform serving screenwriters in 70 countries. In his eyes, "writing code is like making a movie or writing a novel, AI brings software development back to a purely personal creation. Once a programmer and band drummer, "Little Lion Diary" uses AI to bridge the gap between mechanics and code, creating furniture that can chat and healing intelligent devices, proving that hardcore technology can also have warmth and romance. Yang Tianrun, an entrepreneur from an investment bank, practices the "Zero Code AI Legion" at Naughty Labs. He reconstructs job collaboration using his self-developed multi-agent system, handing over human activities that used to belong to large teams to the native team of agents for operation.
This group of super individuals has demonstrated to the world a highly dynamic way of life: they are no longer dependent on traditional organizations and are not trapped in the assembly line division of labor for "product, design, research and development, and operation". A computer, a set of prompts, and an unfulfilled pain point, one person is the prototype of a unicorn.
Bund Observation: Times are rewarding those who break conventions
The intergenerational transition recorded at the 2026 Bund Conference has already surpassed the scope of an industry exhibition. It convinces us that innovation is experiencing an unprecedented level of equality, and the younger generation is taking over the bottom rules at an incredible speed. More importantly, it provides a vivid example for everyone in the era of transformation: facing the roar of AI, there is no need to be anxious about being replaced, because the ultimate goal of innovation is always "human".
When technology is no longer a barrier, when organizations are no longer shackles, those young people who dare to break through established answers and redefine themselves have already blown the wind of the future on the Bund.
