The sixth-generation (6G) mobile networks are expected to enter commercial use around 2030, supporting tens of billions of terminals and handling unprecedented volumes of data traffic. This cover depicts the global research transition from exploring key 6G technologies to system-level integration and standardization, which marks a pivotal stage in 6G evolution. Among the defining innovations in 6G, semantic communications (SemComs) leverage advances in artificial intelligence, initiating a paradigm shift from bit-centric transmission toward meaning-centered interaction. By conveying semantics rather than symbols, SemComs enable more efficient, adaptive, and intelligent information exchange. The defining component of SemCom is the semantic base (Seb)—the fundamental unit of meaning that can be embedded throughout the protocol stack to represent multimodal data such as images, text, and speech. Dynamically evolving with message content and network conditions, Sebs sustain high semantic fidelity and communication efficiency, paving the way to universal intelligent connectivity in the 6G era.
