Capacity development

UN to train governments in blockchain and AI

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) plans to launch a ‘Government Blockchain Academy’ next year to educate public sector officials on blockchain, AI, and other emerging technologies.

The initiative aims to help governments leverage tech for economic growth and sustainable development.

The academy will partner with the Exponential Science Foundation, a non-profit promoting blockchain and AI. Training will cover financial services, digital IDs, public procurement, smart contracts, and climate finance to help governments boost transparency, inclusion, and resilience.

UNDP officials highlighted that developing countries, including India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, are already among the leading adopters of crypto technology.

The academy will provide in-person and online courses, workshops, and forums to guide high-impact blockchain initiatives aligned with national priorities.

The programme follows last year’s UNDP blockchain academy, created in partnership with the Algorand Foundation, which trained over 22,000 staff members to support sustainable growth projects in participating countries.

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Hong Kong to speed up tech hub plan with China

One of S.A.R. of China, Hong Kong, is preparing to accelerate its cross-border technology hub plans with mainland China as the city seeks new growth drivers to offset its fragile economy.

Chief Executive John Lee is set to deliver his annual policy address on Wednesday, with the Northern Metropolis project expected to take centre stage.

The initiative aims to transform a sparsely populated area into a base for advanced industries and innovation, while reducing reliance on finance and real estate.

According to state-owned media, the government will ease financing rules to attract companies in AI, renewable energy and medical technology.

An urgency that comes despite signs of recovery, as the economy of Hong Kong grew at its fastest pace in over a year last quarter. Yet home prices continue to fall, unemployment has risen, and public finances remain stretched.

The administration is unlikely to offer sweeping property incentives, such as tax cuts or looser rules for mainland buyers, given fiscal constraints. Instead, it may revive the long-dormant Tenants Purchase Scheme, first launched in 1998, which allows public housing tenants to buy their flats at reduced prices.

Analysts say that without bold reforms, the housing market will stay under pressure as oversupply and weak sentiment weigh on values.

Hong Kong’s $7.2 trillion stock market could benefit if new listings and inflows are encouraged, especially as developers look to stimulus and lower mortgage rates to support sales.

However, with the economy of China also slowing down, doubts remain over whether deeper integration and technology investments can provide a lasting boost.

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Codex gets smarter with GPT-5, targets GitHub Copilot and rivals

OpenAI has optimised its new GPT-5 model for Codex, its agentic software development tool, boosting performance on both quick coding sessions and long, complex projects. CEO Sam Altman said Codex already accounts for 40% of platform traffic.

GPT-5 Codex can now build full projects, add features, run tests, refactor large codebases, and conduct detailed code reviews. It dynamically adjusts the time spent ‘thinking’ based on task complexity, allowing both interactive pair programming and extended autonomous work.

OpenAI stated that the model can run independently for over seven hours, completing refactorings, fixing test failures, and delivering finished code. Early tests indicate that it catches critical bugs more reliably, allowing developers to focus on the most important issues.

The upgraded Codex is available via terminal, IDE integrations, the web, and GitHub, and comes bundled with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, and Enterprise subscriptions. OpenAI launched Codex CLI in April and a research preview in May.

With GPT-5 Codex, OpenAI aims to capture market share from GitHub Copilot, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and startups such as Anysphere and Windsurf. The company claims the new version delivers faster, higher-quality results for developers at every stage of the software lifecycle.

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UK to benefit from Google’s £5 billion AI plan

Google has unveiled plans to invest £5 billion (around $6.8 billion) in the UK’s AI economy over the next two years.

An announcement comes just hours before US President Donald Trump’s official visit to the country, during which economic agreements worth more than $10 billion are expected.

The investment will include establishing a new AI data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, designed to meet growing demand for services like Google Cloud.

Alongside the facility, funds will be channelled into research and development, capital expenditure, engineering, and DeepMind’s work applying AI to science and healthcare. The project is expected to generate 8,250 annual jobs for British companies.

Google also revealed a partnership with Shell to support grid stability and contribute to the UK’s energy transition. The move highlights the economic and environmental stakes tied to AI expansion, as the UK positions itself as a hub for advanced digital technologies.

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Alphabet hits US$3 trillion valuation on AI optimism

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has become the fourth company to reach a market value above US$3 trillion, fuelled by investor confidence in AI and relief over a favourable antitrust ruling.

Its shares jumped 4.3 percent to close at US$251.76 on 15 September, lifting the firm’s valuation to US$3.05 trillion.

The rally has added about US$1.2 trillion in value since April, with Alphabet joining Apple and Microsoft in the elite group while Nvidia remains the most valuable at US$4.25 trillion.

Investor optimism has been strengthened by expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate cut and surging demand for AI-related products.

Alphabet’s communications services unit has risen more than 26 percent in 2025, outpacing all other major sectors. Strong growth in its cloud division, new AI investments, and the Gemini model have reinforced the company’s momentum.

Analysts note that, while search continues to dominate revenues, Alphabet is increasingly viewed as a diversified technology powerhouse with YouTube, Waymo, and AI research at its core.

By avoiding a forced breakup of Chrome and Android, the antitrust ruling also removed a significant threat to its business model.

Market strategists suggest Alphabet now combines the strength of its legacy platforms with the credibility of emerging technologies, securing its place at the centre of Wall Street’s AI-driven rally.

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Google lays off over 200 AI contractors amid union tensions

The US tech giant, Google, has dismissed over 200 contractors working on its Gemini chatbot and AI Overviews tool. However, this sparks criticism from labour advocates and claims of retaliation against workers pushing for unionisation.

Many affected staff were highly trained ‘super raters’ who helped refine Google’s AI systems, yet were abruptly laid off.

The move highlights growing concerns over job insecurity in the AI sector, where companies depend heavily on outsourced and low-paid contract workers instead of permanent employees.

Workers allege they were penalised for raising issues about inadequate pay, poor working conditions, and the risks of training AI that could eventually replace them.

Google has attempted to distance itself from the controversy, arguing that subcontractor GlobalLogic handled the layoffs rather than the company itself.

Yet critics say that outsourcing allows the tech giant to expand its AI operations without accountability, while undermining collective bargaining efforts.

Labour experts warn that the cuts reflect a broader industry trend in which AI development rests on precarious work arrangements. With union-busting claims intensifying, the dismissals are now seen as part of a deeper struggle over workers’ rights in the digital economy.

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PDGrapher AI tool aims to speed up precision medicine development

Harvard Medical School researchers have developed an AI tool that could transform drug discovery by identifying multiple drivers of disease and suggesting treatments to restore cells to a healthy state.

The model, called PDGrapher, utilises graph neural networks to map the relationships between genes, proteins, and cellular pathways, thereby predicting the most effective targets for reversing disease. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on a single protein, it considers multiple factors at once.

Trained on datasets of diseased cells before and after treatment, PDGrapher correctly predicted known drug targets and identified new candidates supported by emerging research. The model ranked potential targets up to 35% higher and worked 25 times faster than comparable tools.

Researchers are now applying PDGrapher to complex diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and various cancers, where single-target therapies often fail. By identifying combinations of targets, the tool can help overcome drug resistance and expedite treatment design.

Senior author Marinka Zitnik said the ultimate goal is to create a cellular ‘roadmap’ to guide therapy development and enable personalised treatments for patients. After further validation, PDGrapher could become a cornerstone in precision medicine.

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UNDP publishes digital participation guide to empower civic action

A newly published guide by People Powered and UNDP aims to connect people in their communities through inclusive, locally relevant digital participation platforms. Designed with local governments, civic groups, and organisations in mind, it highlights digital platforms that enable inclusive, action-oriented civic engagement.

According to the UNDP, ‘the guide covers the latest trends, including the integration of AI features, and addresses challenges such as digital inclusion, data privacy, accessibility, and sustainability.’

The guide focuses on actively maintained, publicly available platforms, typically offered through cloud-based software (SaaS) models, and prioritises flexible, multi-purpose tools over single-use options. While recognising the dominance of platforms from wealthier countries, it makes a deliberate effort to feature case studies and tools from the Global Majority.

Political advocacy platforms, internal government tools, and issue-reporting apps are excluded to keep the focus on technologies that drive meaningful public participation. Lastly, the guide emphasises the importance of local context and community empowerment, encouraging a shift from passive input to meaningful public influence in governance.

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Quantum breakthroughs could threaten Bitcoin in the 2030s

The rise of quantum computing is sparking fresh concerns over the long-term security of Bitcoin. Unlike classical systems, quantum machines could eventually break the cryptography protecting digital assets.

Experts warn that Shor’s algorithm, once run on a sufficiently powerful quantum computer, could recover private keys from public ones in hours, leaving exposed funds vulnerable. Analysts see the mid-to-late 2030s as the key period for cryptographically relevant breakthroughs.

ChatGPT-5’s probability model indicates less than a 5% chance of Bitcoin being cracked before 2030, but risk rises to 45–60% between 2035 and 2039, and nearly certainty by 2050. Sudden progress in large-scale, fault-tolerant qubits or government directives could accelerate the timeline.

Mitigation strategies include avoiding key reuse, auditing exposed addresses, and gradually shifting to post-quantum or hybrid cryptographic solutions. Experts suggest that critical migrations should be completed by the mid-2030s to secure the Bitcoin network against future quantum threats.

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Privacy-preserving AI gets a boost with Google’s VaultGemma model

Google has unveiled VaultGemma, a new large language model built to offer cutting-edge privacy through differential privacy. The 1-billion-parameter model is based on Google’s Gemma architecture and is described as the most powerful differentially private LLM to date.

Differential privacy adds mathematical noise to data, preventing the identification of individuals while still producing accurate overall results. The method has long been used in regulated industries, but has been challenging to apply to large language models without compromising performance.

VaultGemma is designed to eliminate that trade-off. Google states that the model can be trained and deployed with differential privacy enabled, while maintaining comparable stability and efficiency to non-private LLMs.

This breakthrough could have significant implications for developers building privacy-sensitive AI systems, ranging from healthcare and finance to government services. It demonstrates that sensitive data can be protected without sacrificing speed or accuracy.

Google’s research teams say the model will be released with open-source tools to help others adopt privacy-preserving techniques. The move comes amid rising regulatory and public scrutiny over how AI systems handle personal data.

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