On September 19, the 2026 Zhihu Hackathon Campus New Talent Season wrapped up its final phase. The competition, which opened on August 15, drew 435 submitted projects and 1,878 student developers representing 450 universities, including prestigious domestic institutions such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, and Renmin University of China. Additionally, 34 universities from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas participated, including MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Hong Kong.

During the final roadshow presentations, Zhihu's Chief Operating Officer, Zhang Rongle, noted that Zhihu stands as a community with the highest concentration and broadest scope of AI discussion. He observed that contributors on the platform have evolved beyond merely answering questions, transitioning into product creators. In the AI era, human value is not diminished but amplified, as each individual can leverage AI technology to reach and influence a wider audience, Zhang stated. This vision drives Zhihu's commitment to hosting the hackathon series and nurturing its AI ecosystem.

Through its open data platform and the AI Works project hub, which enables users to upload and showcase AI creations, Zhihu users are diversifying their forms of content generation. Presently, AI Works has accumulated over 2,600 AI projects, while the open data platform has attracted more than 17,600 professional developers, with 20% representing new developers who were not previously Zhihu creators. Additionally, Zhihu has launched an upgraded version of its intelligent agent development tool, Zhihu CLI, enhancing the ease with which developers can discover and utilize platform content.