Slip on a pair of artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered glasses weighing just 49 grams, and you can use voice commands or a tap on the frame to cue a teleprompter showing your speech on the glasses, or take photos, translate, navigate and pay. Sounds like a science fiction movie? Yet, this will be a featured exhibit at the 4th Global Digital Trade Expo.

The expo will be held from Thursday to September 29 in an AI highland in China - Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. More than 1,700 exhibitors from home and abroad will attend the event, according to the organizers.

International attendees are expected to exceed 10,000, up 54 percent from last year, with 35,000 professional buyers invited, up 16 percent year-on-year. As of mid-September, orders worth more than 4 billion yuan ($562.5 million) had been secured from countries including Spain and Italy. To enhance matchmaking, the expo will debut a "digital trade investment day," connecting more than 100 domestic digital trade innovation projects with top global venture capital firms, said Lu Shan, a vice governor of Zhejiang, at a press conference.

Analysts said that China has made significant strides in AI development, with substantial investments, fostering advancements in areas such as generative AI, embodied robotics and large language models. China is shaping the international AI landscape with an open mind by collaborating with other countries, enhancing global innovation and technological exchange.

This year's expo sets a new scale, boasting an exhibition area of 155,000 square meters. It includes a main pavilion named "future tech arena" and seven themed zones - AI, digital entertainment, smart mobility, and more - showcasing advanced technologies such as generative AI and multimodal sensory interaction. The event will fully integrate and highlight the fusion of "AI + digital trade," the Global Times learned from the organizers.

The "future tech arena" will highlight embodied intelligent robots, demonstrating AI's role in digital trade ecosystems.

A standout is the global digital trade constellation 2035 plan from STAR.VISION, a Chinese AI-driven satellite company focused on Earth observation and space exploration, featuring four cutting-edge AI satellites.

These satellites, embedded with data center-level computing power, function as "orbital supercomputers" rather than mere "space cameras." A groundbreaking test is scheduled for 2029 on the moon, where STAR.VISION's AI lunar robot will enable humanity's first extraterrestrial scan-to-pay transaction under the Chang'e-8 international project, Chen Junrui, the company's brand operations manager, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Apart from AI, the expo will also showcase leading global computing devices, large language models and embodied intelligent robots, along with more than 100 AI applications in healthcare, education, entertainment, transportation and architecture. Accompanying events like a robot innovation contest and electronic music festival will immerse attendees in AI's latest capabilities.

The theme of the deep integration of digital trade and AI will take center stage.

Digital trade, as a new form integrating digital technology with international trade, is demonstrating robust resilience and potential by expanding trade boundaries, innovating trade models, and empowering trade entities, making it a strategic choice for countries amid the deepening adjustment of the global economic landscape and rising uncertainties, Vice Commerce Minister Sheng Qiuping said at a press conference on September 11.