Capacity development Archives | Page 34 of 319

Guterres convenes global UN panel of 40 experts to assess AI risks

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the inaugural meeting of a new independent group of experts on AI convened by the UN that they have a huge responsibility to help shape how the technology is used ‘for the benefit of humanity’.

‘Individually, you come from diverse regions and disciplines, bringing outstanding expertise in AI and related fields. Collectively, you represent something the world has never seen before,’ the UN chief told scientists on Tuesday at the first meeting of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.

The panel brings together 40 experts who aim to help close ‘the AI knowledge gap’ and assess the real impact the frontier technology will have across economies and societies so that countries can act with the same ‘clarity’ on a level playing field.

The experts will provide scientific assessments independent of any government, company or institution – including the UN itself. ‘AI is advancing at lightning speed… no country, no company, and no field of research can see the full picture alone,’ Guterres said. ‘The world urgently needs a shared, global understanding of artificial intelligence; grounded not in ideology, but in science.’

Warning about the stakes involved as AI evolves rapidly, Guterres said the technology will shape peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development for decades to come. ‘I have seen how quickly fear can take hold when facts are missing or distorted – how trust breaks down, and division deepens,’ he said. At a time when ‘geopolitical tensions are rising, and conflicts are raging,’ he stressed that the need for shared understanding and ‘safe and responsible AI could not be greater.’

As AI development accelerates, the Secretary-General also warned the panel that it is ‘in a race against time.’ Addressing concerns about the pace of technological change, he said: ‘Never in the future will we move as slowly as we are moving now. We are indeed in a high level of acceleration.’

Guterres also pointed to earlier work through the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI, noting that the new scientific panel does not ‘start from zero’. Concluding his remarks, Guterres told the experts: ‘I can think of no more important assignment for our world today.’

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AI Readiness Assessment Report highlights India’s progress and gaps in ethical AI

UNESCO and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have launched the India AI Readiness Assessment Report during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The report evaluates the country’s progress in building an ethical and human-centred AI ecosystem.

Developed by UNESCO with the IndiaAI Mission and Ikigai Law as implementing partner, the report draws on consultations with more than 600 stakeholders from government, academia, industry, and civil society. The assessment examined governance, workforce readiness, and infrastructure development.

Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr Ajay Kumar Sood, emphasised the importance of embedding ethics throughout the technology lifecycle. ‘AI is here to make an impact. The question is not how fast we adopt AI, but how thoughtfully we shape it,’ he said.

The report highlights the country’s growing role in global AI development, noting that it accounts for around 16% of the world’s AI talent and has filed more than 86,000 related patents since 2010. It also points to progress in multilingual AI systems and digital public services.

The assessment also identifies policy priorities, including stronger legal frameworks, inclusive workforce transitions, and better access to high-quality datasets. UNESCO officials said the recommendations aim to support responsible AI governance and strengthen public trust.

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AI helps Stanford researchers map schistosomiasis risk in Senegal

Stanford researchers have developed an AI-powered system that combines field surveys, drones, and satellite imagery to identify schistosomiasis risk areas across Senegal.

The project began with fieldwork in Senegal, where researchers collected aquatic vegetation and snails from more than 30 river and estuary sites. The samples helped identify environmental conditions linked to schistosomiasis, which affects about 250 million people worldwide, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Giulio De Leo of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability said the research required scaling beyond local sampling. ‘The work was necessary to discover these risks, but we can only do so much locally.’

Early support from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI enabled the development of machine learning tools capable of identifying disease-related snails and vegetation in imagery. The system now integrates field observations with drone and satellite data to detect potential infection hotspots.

Researchers say the approach can support public health monitoring and environmental analysis. The machine learning methods developed for the project are also being applied to agriculture, forest monitoring, and mosquito-borne disease research.

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Cisco report highlights cybersecurity risks and benefits of industrial AI

AI is becoming central to industrial networking strategies, but it is also creating new security challenges, according to Cisco’s 2026 State of Industrial AI Report.

Based on a survey of 1,000 professionals across 19 countries and 21 sectors, the report shows organisations view cybersecurity as both a barrier and an opportunity for AI adoption. About 40% cited cybersecurity concerns as a major obstacle, while 48% named security their biggest networking challenge.

At the same time, many organisations believe AI will strengthen their cyber resilience. Cisco noted that ‘while security gaps are limiting AI scale today, organisations view AI as a tool to strengthen detection, monitoring and resilience’.

The report also highlights organisational challenges, particularly collaboration between IT and operational technology teams. Only 20% of organisations report fully collaborative IT and OT cybersecurity operations, despite the growing importance of coordination for AI deployment.

Cisco said industrial AI adoption is accelerating, with 61% of organisations already deploying AI in industrial environments. However, only one in five reports mature, scaled adoption, suggesting many deployments remain in early stages.

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Crypto exchanges face strict 2027 reserve rules under new Brazil framework

Brazil’s central bank has introduced a regulatory framework requiring licensed crypto exchanges to prove asset sufficiency daily starting on 1 January 2027. The measures align digital asset intermediaries with banking standards on capital management, accounting, and data protection.

Under the rules, exchanges must submit daily attestations confirming that platforms hold adequate fiat and token reserves. Supervisors will review the reports to ensure companies can cover operational, liquidity, and cybersecurity risks while protecting customer balances.

The framework also mandates strict segregation of company and client assets. Exchanges must maintain separate accounts for customer fiat and digital holdings to prevent commingling of funds and improve transparency for regulators.

Platforms operating in Brazil will also be required to follow a specialised accounting manual for digital assets. Standardised rules for classification, valuation, and impairment aim to ensure financial statements clearly reflect exposures across regulated entities.

Authorities will expand oversight of cross-border transfers handled by domestic crypto exchanges. Platforms must report the origins of transactions and the blockchain pathways they follow. The central bank said the framework aims to strengthen resilience and protect customer funds.

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Santander and Mastercard complete Europe’s first AI agent payment

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander and Mastercard have completed what they describe as Europe’s first live end-to-end payment executed by an AI agent. The pilot combined Santander’s live payments infrastructure with Mastercard Agent Pay to enable autonomous, permission-based transactions.

Mastercard Agent Pay, launched in April 2025, allows AI agents to initiate and complete payments within predefined consumer limits. The transaction was orchestrated with support from PayOS and integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot Studio.

Following the pilot, Santander plans to expand testing and explore new partnerships across agentic commerce use cases. The bank, which manages around €1.84 trillion in assets, is positioning AI as a core driver of innovation.

AI initiatives at Santander are led by chief data and AI officer Ricardo Martín Manjón, hired from BBVA. A strategic partnership with OpenAI has also connected up to 30,000 employees to ChatGPT Enterprise in one of the fastest deployments of its kind.

Global competition in agentic payments is intensifying as Citi, US Bank and Westpac trial Mastercard Agent Pay. Westpac recently completed New Zealand’s first authenticated agentic transaction, while DBS, Visa, Axis Bank and RBL Bank are advancing similar intelligent commerce pilots.

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AI tool from MIT speeds up complex engineering optimisation

MIT researchers have developed a new AI approach that helps engineers solve complex design problems faster, from power grid optimisation to vehicle safety.

The method adapts a foundation model trained on tabular data, enabling high-dimensional optimisation without retraining and significantly speeding up results.

The system uses a foundation model with Bayesian optimisation to pinpoint the variables that most impact outcomes. Focusing on key variables, the model finds top solutions 10 to 100 times faster than existing optimisation methods.

Early tests show the approach excels in costly, time-consuming scenarios like car crash testing and power system design. The technique lowers computational demands and suits large-scale, high-frequency engineering challenges across multiple domains.

Researchers aim to expand the method to even higher-dimensional problems, such as naval ship design, while highlighting the broader potential of foundation models as algorithmic engines in scientific and engineering tools.

Experts see it as a practical step toward making advanced optimisation more accessible in real-world applications.

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Developers gain early access to Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Google’s Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has launched in preview for developers via AI Studio and for enterprises through Vertex AI. Designed for high-volume workloads, it promises fast, cost-effective performance while maintaining high-quality outputs.

Priced at just $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens, 3.1 Flash-Lite offers 2.5X faster response times and 45% higher output speed than the previous 2.5 Flash model.

Benchmarks show strong performance across reasoning and multimodal tasks, including an Elo score of 1432 on Arena.ai, 86.9% on GPQA Diamond, and 76.8% on MMMU Pro, surpassing some older, larger Gemini models.

The model also provides adaptive intelligence features, allowing developers to adjust how much the AI ‘thinks’ for each task. The model handles both high-frequency tasks, such as translation, and complex tasks, such as interface generation and simulations.

Early-access developers and companies report that 3.1 Flash-Lite handles complex workloads with precision comparable to larger models. Its speed, affordability, and reasoning capabilities make it an attractive choice for scalable, real-time AI applications.

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Ripple expands stablecoin platform for global payments

The money-movement solution Ripple Payments has been expanded to integrate both traditional and digital payment rails. The upgrade strengthens its enterprise-grade platform, enabling custody, collections, and liquidity management while supporting global fintech expansion.

The company emphasised that the platform now processes fiat currencies and stablecoins on a single infrastructure.

Operating in more than 60 major markets, Ripple supports corporate on-chain treasury operations through managed custody and virtual account capabilities.

Recent acquisitions of Palisade and Rail have enhanced custody, treasury automation, virtual accounts, and collections, allowing firms to collect, hold, exchange, and pay out both fiat and stablecoins seamlessly.

The expanded platform offers named virtual accounts and wallet issuance, automated collection flows, fund exchange, and settlement functions. Managed custody supports large-scale wallet issuance, fast transaction signing, and transfers to operating accounts.

Companies can collect fiat and stablecoins in integrated accounts with automated FX conversion and settlement. Ripple highlighted its liquidity management expertise, enabling clients to deploy corporate assets optimally.

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Cybercriminals shift to stolen credentials and AI-enabled attacks

Ransomware attacks are increasingly relying on stolen passwords rather than traditional malware, according to Cloudflare’s latest annual threat report. Attackers now exploit legitimate account credentials to blend into regular traffic, making breaches harder to detect and contain.

Manufacturing and critical infrastructure organisations account for over half of targeted attacks, reflecting their high operational stakes.

Cloudflare highlighted that AI is enabling attackers to prioritise speed and scale over technical sophistication. Generative AI lets criminals automate fraud, hijacking email threads and targeting a ~$49,000 sweet spot to maximise profit while avoiding scrutiny.

Nation-state actors also leverage legitimate platforms for command-and-control operations, with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea each following distinct cyber strategies.

Researchers warned that modern ransomware is less a malware crisis and more an identity and access challenge. Attackers using authorised credentials can bypass defences and execute high-impact extortion, marking a significant shift in global threat vectors.

The report urges businesses to strengthen identity security, monitor access, and defend against AI-driven attacks that exploit impersonation and automation at scale.

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