The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has welcomed the political agreement on the revised EU Child Sexual Abuse Directive, saying the legislation marks an important step in strengthening Europe’s response to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The organisation says the updated rules address legal gaps created by emerging technologies, particularly the misuse of AI to generate child sexual abuse material.
The revised Directive introduces new criminal offences covering the design, adaptation, distribution and supply of AI systems intended to generate child sexual abuse material. It also criminalises the possession of AI-generated abuse content and materials that provide instructions for committing child sexual abuse.
The revised rules also strengthen protections against online grooming, including cases in which offenders falsely present themselves as children or peers, and extend limitation periods to give survivors more time to pursue justice.
The IWF argues that the legislation reflects the rapidly evolving threat posed by generative AI.
IWF warns that technological advances are accelerating the scale and sophistication of online child exploitation.
Following the political agreement, the IWF has urged EU member states to transpose the Directive into national law promptly, arguing that timely implementation will strengthen legal protections and law enforcement capabilities across the EU. The organisation argues that timely transposition will be essential to ensure stronger legal protections, improve law enforcement capabilities and reduce opportunities for offenders to exploit AI technologies across the EU.
Why does it matter?
The revised Directive reflects how advances in generative AI are reshaping criminal law and child protection policy. By introducing offences specifically targeting AI systems designed to generate child sexual abuse material, the EU is adapting its legal framework to address emerging forms of technology-enabled exploitation.
The agreement also highlights the growing need for legal systems to evolve alongside AI capabilities. Alongside new offences, the Directive strengthens protections for victims and expands tools available to law enforcement, illustrating how governments are updating criminal legislation to respond to increasingly sophisticated forms of online abuse while seeking greater consistency across EU member states.
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Canada’s Centre for Cyber Security has warned that frontier AI models are rapidly transforming the cyber threat landscape, reducing the time organisations have to detect, contain and respond to attacks.
According to the Cyber Centre, AI is enabling cybercriminals to identify vulnerabilities, automate complex attack chains and generate increasingly convincing phishing campaigns, deepfakes and voice impersonation attacks at unprecedented speed and scale.
The advisory follows a joint statement by the Five Eyes cybersecurity agencies urging organisations worldwide to strengthen cyber resilience before AI-enabled attacks evolve into major operational, financial and national security incidents.
The Cyber Centre also highlights internal risks associated with unapproved AI use, including the exposure of sensitive information and reliance on inaccurate or manipulated AI-generated outputs.
Rather than viewing AI solely as a source of risk, the Cyber Centre encourages organisations to integrate frontier AI into cybersecurity operations. AI can help identify vulnerabilities earlier in software development, strengthen secure-by-design practices, improve security monitoring and accelerate incident detection and response.
The guidance emphasises that fundamental cyber hygiene, including timely patching, phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, centralised logging and regularly tested incident response plans, remains essential despite rapid advances in AI capabilities.
Why does it matter?
The guidance reflects a shift in cybersecurity from preparing for future AI risks to responding to immediate operational challenges. As frontier AI enables attackers to identify vulnerabilities, automate exploitation and produce more sophisticated phishing and social engineering campaigns, organisations may have less time to detect and contain incidents.
The advisory also reinforces an emerging consensus among the Five Eyes partners that AI should be treated as both a cyber risk and a defensive capability. Alongside robust governance and responsible AI use, organisations are increasingly expected to combine AI-enabled security tools with strong cyber hygiene, secure-by-design practices and resilient incident response capabilities to keep pace with a rapidly evolving threat landscape.
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Africa’s place in an evolving digital governance landscape
As AI, cybersecurity, and digital technologies become increasingly central to international policymaking, African countries are seeking to strengthen their role in shaping global digital governance. Questions of representation, digital sovereignty, capacity development, and regional coordination are becoming more prominent as governments prepare for negotiations on AI governance, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and internet governance.
These issues formed the focus of a recent Diplo webinar on Cyber Diplomacy in Africa: Regional, National and Continental Initiatives, moderated by Mwende Njiraini, African Initiative Coordinator at Diplo and Chair of the ITU-T Study Group 17 Regional Group for Africa on security. The discussion brought together policymakers, diplomats, academics, and regional organisations to examine how African interests can be more effectively represented in international digital governance processes.
Although the discussion focused on Africa, many of the issues raised, including AI governance, digital sovereignty, capacity development, and multistakeholder cooperation, reflect broader challenges facing digital governance worldwide.
From cyber diplomacy to diplomacy in the AI era
Opening the discussion, Kurbalija suggested that the distinction between cyber diplomacy, digital diplomacy, and technology diplomacy is becoming less significant as digital technologies permeate virtually every area of international relations. Rather than focusing on terminology, he argued that the central question is how countries, communities, and citizens represent their interests in an increasingly digital world.
‘Cyber diplomacy, digital diplomacy, or AI diplomacy is ultimately diplomacy. It is about representing interests, negotiating, and finding common solutions.’, he said.
According to Kurbalija, technological developments are no longer confined to specialised policy discussions. AI, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and data governance increasingly influence trade, security, education, healthcare, humanitarian action, and economic development, making digital issues part of mainstream diplomacy.
This evolution also raises questions about whether Africa is sufficiently represented in international discussions shaping the future of digital technologies.
Image via Magnific
Kurbalija noted that African diplomats are becoming more active in negotiations related to AI, cybersecurity, and internet governance, but argued that stronger participation will be necessary to ensure that the continent’s priorities are reflected in emerging international frameworks.
Rather than approaching these meetings individually, Kurbalija encouraged participants to prepare coordinated positions that reflect African priorities across different policy areas.
Regional coordination remains a work in progress
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the gap between continental ambitions and national implementation.
However, she questioned whether these processes consistently translate into practical outcomes across the continent.
To illustrate this point, Getao presented the results of a live audience poll measuring familiarity with African digital governance initiatives. While approximately half of the participants recognised the AU Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (the Malabo Convention), significantly fewer were familiar with other continental initiatives, including the AU Digital Transformation Strategy and the African Union’s position on international law in cyberspace.
The findings suggested that awareness of Africa’s existing digital governance architecture remains uneven, even among participants engaged in digital policy discussions.
Ambassador Bitange Ndemo argued that implementation presents an even greater challenge than awareness. He observed that agreements adopted at the African Union level often take considerable time to influence national policymaking, with countries frequently developing their own legal and regulatory approaches rather than building on common continental frameworks.
Using the Malabo Convention as an example, Ndemo suggested that many governments introduced separate data protection legislation without fully integrating broader continental approaches. According to him, one contributing factor is reliance on external funding for many regional digital initiatives.
‘If we continue depending on external partners to finance our priorities, ownership becomes more difficult’, Ndemo added.
Ndemo argued that stronger African investment in digital governance initiatives would improve both implementation and long-term sustainability.
Getao echoed this concern, noting that important achievements at the continental level do not always ‘percolate’ effectively to national implementation.
Building common African positions
Despite these challenges, speakers highlighted several examples of growing regional coordination.
Meriem Slimani described how the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) has worked to strengthen cooperation among member states in preparing common African positions for international telecommunications negotiations.
When she joined the organisation in 2015, Slimani recalled, many countries submitted proposals independently at international meetings, often without consulting neighbouring states.
ATU responded by creating a coordination platform through which member countries discuss priorities, identify common interests, exchange experiences, and gradually develop shared positions before major international conferences.
‘Our objective has been to ensure that Africa speaks with one voice where common interests exist.’
Image via Magnific
According to Slimani, this collaborative approach has become particularly important in preparation for major meetings of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where coordinated regional positions can strengthen Africa’s influence during negotiations.
While acknowledging that implementation challenges remain, he argued that progress has been more visible in some sectors than others.
In particular, COMESA has advanced several practical digital trade initiatives, including electronic trade documentation, digital logistics systems, electronic certificates of origin, and simplified digital trade procedures designed to facilitate cross-border commerce.
Governance issues such as cybersecurity and cybercrime, however, have generally progressed more slowly because they often involve more politically sensitive discussions and require broader legal coordination among participating states.
Chinemhute suggested that smaller regional organisations can sometimes move more quickly than continental institutions because they involve fewer actors and more focused policy priorities.
Looking ahead
While speakers approached Africa’s digital future from different institutional and regional perspectives, several common priorities emerged throughout the discussion. These included strengthening Africa’s participation in global digital governance processes, improving coordination among national, regional, and continental initiatives, investing in capacity development, and ensuring that digital policies reflect local realities and priorities.
The discussion also highlighted that digital governance extends beyond technology. Questions of AI, cybersecurity, connectivity, language, education, and financing were presented as interconnected challenges that require cooperation among governments, regional organisations, academia, the private sector, and civil society.
Image via Magnific
As international discussions on AI and digital governance continue through forums such as the AI for Good Global Summit, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 process, and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), speakers stressed that African participation will be most effective when supported by coordinated regional positions and sustained investment in local expertise and digital capabilities.
Ultimately, the webinar underscored that Africa’s role in shaping the future of digital governance will depend not only on engagement in international negotiations but also on translating continental ambitions into practical national implementation and ensuring that African perspectives contribute to global debates on AI, cybersecurity, and digital development.
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OpenAI has updated GPT-5.5 Instant to make ChatGPT conversations more natural, useful and responsive to user intent.
According to the company’s release notes, the update is designed to improve conversational quality, especially when users are making decisions, asking for advice, planning, researching options or shopping.
We have a new version of GPT-5.5 Instant for you, and it's much more fun to talk to.
Our most-used model is now better at understanding the intent behind a question and adapting its response accordingly.
It also handles complex constraints more reliably and makes shopping and…
OpenAI said GPT-5.5 Instant is now better at identifying the underlying goal behind a question and carrying context across multiple turns. The company also said the model follows complex instructions more reliably, including requests with several constraints or requirements.
The update is intended to make the model more adaptive during ongoing conversations. When users add constraints or push back on an answer, GPT-5.5 Instant should adjust its approach more effectively, rather than simply repeating its original response.
The change reflects a wider shift in consumer AI systems from one-off answer generation towards more context-aware and interactive assistance.
Why does it matter?
The update shows how competition in AI assistants is moving beyond raw accuracy and benchmark performance towards conversational quality. For everyday users, the ability to understand intent, track context, follow multiple constraints and respond well to feedback can determine whether AI tools feel genuinely useful in education, work, shopping, planning and customer support.
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Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has published a paper on how higher education institutions can assure quality learning in a future shaped by generative AI.
The paper, ‘Assuring quality learning in a GenAI-integrated future: The role of adaptive capabilities’, argues that universities need to rethink how they define, assess and evidence student learning as generative AI becomes embedded in education.
The authors say generative AI and automated decision-making systems challenge traditional approaches to academic integrity and assessment. Rather than focusing only on securing final submissions, institutions should clarify what students need to learn in AI-integrated environments and how that learning can be demonstrated.
The paper identifies adaptive capabilities as central to graduate learning. These include digital literacy, distributed cognition, hybrid metacognition and life-long learning, grounded in disciplinary knowledge and supported by student agency and regulation.
The authors warn that narrow AI literacy may not be enough, as operational skills linked to current tools can quickly become outdated. Adaptive capabilities can help students evaluate new technologies, use AI ethically and continue learning as systems evolve.
The paper also highlights risks linked to generative AI, including overreliance on AI-generated explanations, reduced effortful learning and excessive cognitive offloading. It says higher education should preserve practices that support deeper learning, such as retrieval practice, spaced revision and generating answers before receiving explanations.
Assessment reform is a major theme. The paper calls for greater attention to evidence of learning processes rather than only to final products. Possible approaches include portfolios, learning journey documentation, reflective tasks, trace data and structured self-assessments.
TEQSA says the paper is not prescriptive and does not form part of its formal guidance notes. Instead, it is intended to support institutional thinking about how quality assurance may need to change as generative AI becomes a normal part of higher education.
Why does it matter?
Generative AI is weakening the reliability of product-based assessment, especially when final essays, reports, or problem solutions are produced or heavily shaped by AI tools. TEQSA’s focus on adaptive capabilities points towards a different quality assurance model: one that values student judgement, process evidence, ethical AI use and deep disciplinary understanding. That matters for universities because they will increasingly need to prove not only that students produced work, but that they learned, reasoned and exercised agency while using AI.
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Li made the remarks during the opening plenary of the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as Summer Davos, in Dalian.
According to the Chinese government’s account of the speech, Li said China would work with other parties to strengthen institutional frameworks and rules, improve regulatory effectiveness and address potential AI risks.
He said AI has significantly improved innovation efficiency, but warned that risks linked to technological loss of control and ethical failures are becoming more pronounced.
Li said governance needs to keep pace with AI development, warning that the consequences could be severe if regulatory systems fail to keep to with the pace of technological change.
The remarks underline China’s continued effort to position itself as a participant in international AI governance debates, while also linking AI regulation to broader questions of innovation, economic development and global cooperation.
Why does it matter?
Li’s remarks show that AI governance remains part of China’s wider diplomatic and economic positioning. As frontier AI advances, governments are treating safety, ethics and regulatory coordination as strategic issues alongside competition over models, compute and industrial capacity. The speech does not introduce a new Chinese AI policy, but it reinforces Beijing’s message that global AI governance should involve international coordination rather than being shaped only by a few countries or companies.
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The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) will honour 12 public sector initiatives at the 2026 UN Public Service Awards for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through more inclusive, transparent and participatory public services.
The awards attracted more than 700 applications from 62 countries and recognise projects ranging from digital document verification and public procurement monitoring to improving education access and supporting coastal women.
According to UN DESA, several winning initiatives leverage digital government tools, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and AI to improve service delivery and strengthen public administration capacity.
The awards ceremony will be held during the UN Public Service Forum in Tbilisi, Georgia, following the commemoration of UN Public Service Day.
Why does it matter?
The awards highlight how governments are increasingly using digital technologies and AI to improve public service delivery, strengthen administrative capacity and advance sustainable development objectives. From digital verification systems to more transparent procurement processes, technology is becoming an important tool for making public institutions more efficient, accountable and accessible.
The initiative also demonstrates the growing role of digital transformation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. By recognising successful public-sector innovations from around the world, the awards provide examples of how governments can use technology to address social, economic and governance challenges while promoting inclusion, transparency and citizen participation.
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The government argues that access to large-scale computing infrastructure is becoming essential for researchers, universities, startups and businesses seeking to develop advanced AI systems and remain competitive in an increasingly AI-driven economy.
The investment builds on Spain’s existing role within Europe’s supercomputing ecosystem. The country already hosts AI factories at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Galician Supercomputing Center, while the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer has supported projects ranging from genomic research to climate and digital twin initiatives.
The funding also aims to strengthen Spain’s position in quantum technologies, an area increasingly viewed as strategically important for Europe’s long-term technological autonomy.
The announcement reflects a wider European push to expand sovereign computing capabilities as demand for AI training infrastructure grows worldwide.
By seeking to host an AI gigafactory, Spain hopes to attract investment, support innovation, strengthen domestic technological capabilities and position itself as a central player in Europe’s next-generation AI ecosystem.
Why does it matter?
Access to large-scale computing infrastructure is becoming a strategic prerequisite for advanced AI development. Training frontier AI models, running large-scale simulations and supporting scientific research require computing resources that are increasingly concentrated among a small number of global technology providers. Spain’s investment seeks to strengthen both national and European capacity in this critical area.
The announcement also reflects the EU’s broader push for technological sovereignty. By expanding domestic AI and supercomputing infrastructure, Europe aims to reduce dependence on foreign computing resources, support innovation ecosystems and ensure that advanced technologies are developed within frameworks aligned with European values, regulations and industrial priorities. The competition to host AI gigafactories is therefore as much about economic competitiveness and strategic autonomy as it is about computing power.
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Premier Cho Jung-tai chaired the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee on Tuesday, marking a formal step in Taiwan’s effort to shape its long-term AI strategy.
Cho said Taiwan should move beyond its traditional role as a manufacturing hub and become a model for AI development grounded in freedom, democracy and public trust. Central to this vision is the use of domestic datasets to build what the premier described as a secure, trustworthy, and responsible AI ecosystem.
The committee adopted seven guiding principles for responsible AI, covering sustainability and well-being, human autonomy, privacy and data governance, cybersecurity and safety, transparency and explainability, fairness and non-discrimination, and accountability. Education, healthcare, finance, and justice were designated as the initial sectors for demonstration, with ministries expected to gradually expand AI use into a broader ‘smart living’ ecosystem.
Under the AI Basic Act, government agencies are required to complete the necessary regulatory adjustments within two years. The Ministry of Digital Affairs has been tasked with developing a risk classification framework and coordinating audits across sectors, with particular attention to areas affecting fundamental rights such as education and employment.
Drawing on the model of chief sustainability officers, Cho called for the appointment of chief data officers across government ministries to strengthen data governance, open data initiatives and AI training datasets. Data governance, he stressed, must balance innovation with protections under existing personal data and copyright legislation.
The National Science and Technology Council was instructed to revise the draft national AI framework based on committee feedback before submitting it for Cabinet approval. Sector-specific governance rules will also be developed, with the Ministry of Digital Affairs responsible for guiding industries on AI risk assessments, governance measures and internal controls.
Why does it matter?
Taiwan’s strategy illustrates how AI policy is increasingly intertwined with questions of digital sovereignty, governance and democratic values. By emphasising trusted AI, domestic datasets and protections for privacy and fundamental rights, Taiwan is seeking to distinguish its approach from other models of AI governance while strengthening its technological competitiveness.
The initiative also moves beyond broad policy ambitions by establishing governance structures and implementation deadlines. The two-year timeline under the AI Basic Act, together with plans for sector-specific rules, risk classification and data governance reforms, will provide an early test of how effectively governments can translate high-level AI principles into practical regulation and public-sector adoption.
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China’s AI sector has experienced ‘explosive growth’, citing significant performance improvements across multiple Chinese large language models.
Speaking at the opening plenary of the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, Li said daily token consumption across Chinese large language models had exceeded 100 trillion by the end of May, placing China among the world’s leading AI markets by usage.
Li also pointed to advances in embodied AI, saying the technology is beginning to move towards large-scale commercial deployment. The remarks came at the forum commonly known as Summer Davos, an annual gathering held in China focused on global economic and technological trends.
Li did not announce new policy measures or provide additional supporting data. His remarks nevertheless reinforce China’s broader narrative of rapid progress in AI model development and commercial deployment.
Why does it matter?
China’s remarks underscore the growing importance of AI as a strategic driver of economic competitiveness and technological leadership. Claims of daily token consumption exceeding 100 trillion suggest that large language models are being deployed at a significant scale, although the figures were presented by the Chinese government and were not independently verified.
The announcement also reflects intensifying global competition in AI. By highlighting advances in foundation models and embodied AI at a high-profile international forum, China is signalling its ambition to compete with other leading AI economies while showcasing progress in both AI research and commercial applications.
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