On Friday night at WAIC, we hosted a "True or False Melon King Championship" | Linear Event

After last year's "WAIC Summer Melon Night," we received enthusiastic feedback from friends both inside and outside the industry. So this year, we're leveling up.

Friday night, July 17 — WAIC 2026 "True vs. Fake Melon King Championship" is coming. There's only one requirement to apply: submit a "melon" (piece of gossip) you've personally experienced in the AI world. Anonymization is allowed, but it must be absolutely true. We'll distribute tickets based on melon quality.

Harry Wang, founder of Linear Capital, will also join as "Chief Melon Officer" to eat ice-cold watermelon and vote on what's real. The AI world hasn't heard interesting truths in too long. Seats are limited — apply fast.

Last year on the eve of WAIC, Linear Capital hosted a "Summer Melon Night." No slides, no panels, just food, cold beer, and lively conversation in a circle.

This year, the soil for topics is richer, and the melons come from farther afield. From the debate over model applications, to the thick fog around embodied intelligence deployment, to the early signals emerging in AI4S, even the underlying architecture of AI Infra is quietly being rewritten — daytime curiosity deserves to be fully indulged at night.

So we're upgrading the WAIC Melon Night. Friday, July 17, we're hosting an AI industry "True vs. Fake Melon King Championship" along Shanghai's Huangpu River. Sweeter melons, livelier gathering, but the core remains unchanged: bring one melon, leave with a pile of melons and a bunch of new friends.

There's only one requirement to apply: submit a "melon" you've personally experienced or witnessed in the AI industry. Post-mortems of failures, hidden funding stories, the unspeakable parts behind product launches, the deepest pit you've stepped into as a founder, that top-conference paper you could never reproduce, a SOTA result that got hyped but was watered down, or the truth about partnering with a tech giant... anything goes.

The sole requirement for your submission: it must be true. Content can be anonymized. We'll distribute 60 limited tickets based on how interesting or unusual your melon is.

At the event, we'll mix your submitted true melons with several AI-generated fake ones. Founders on the front lines, core people from major tech firms, cutting-edge researchers — all gathered together eating ice-cold watermelon and voting on what's real. You only need to do one thing: judge whether this is a real person's real story, or AI fabrication. Both the true melon-holder who fools people the longest, and the audience member who guesses most accurately, will receive a gift from us.

Notably, Harry will be there as "Chief Melon Officer," eating melons, voting, and guessing right alongside you.

The AI world hasn't heard interesting truths in too long. This year, let's find out — can we actually tell real talk apart from AI-generated fake melons?