Development Archives | Digital Watch Observatory

Norway restricts generative AI use in primary schools

Norway is introducing new national guidance that significantly restricts the use of generative AI in primary education as part of a broader effort to strengthen foundational learning outcomes. From the upcoming school year, pupils in grades 1–7 will generally not be permitted to use generative AI tools in their schoolwork.

The approach reflects concerns over declining foundational skills, with international assessments indicating a drop in reading and numeracy levels among Norwegian students. Policymakers have linked the decision to evidence suggesting that early and uncritical reliance on generative AI could interfere with the development of essential literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills.

In secondary education, AI will be introduced gradually, with schools expected to ensure that teachers have the necessary skills and training before students begin using the technology. Full integration is expected at the upper secondary level, where AI is seen as part of preparation for further education and the labour market.

Authorities emphasised that AI may still be used in specific circumstances, particularly to support students with individual learning needs or those requiring tailored educational assistance. The policy will be reviewed and adjusted over time, with a focus on strengthening teacher training and ensuring responsible use of the technology across the education system.

Why does it matter?

The decision reflects a growing international debate over the role of generative AI in education. While AI tools can support learning, creativity and personalised instruction, educators and policymakers are increasingly concerned that early dependence on such technologies could weaken the development of core skills that students need before they can use AI critically and effectively.

Norway’s approach also highlights a broader shift towards phased AI adoption in schools. Rather than focusing solely on access to technology, the policy places teacher competence, pedagogical goals and student development at the centre of implementation. The outcome may influence similar discussions in other countries seeking to balance digital innovation with educational quality and learning outcomes.

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Indonesia plans AI integration across major government programmes

Indonesia plans to integrate AI into major government programmes, including its flagship free meals initiative valued at approximately $15 billion, under a draft presidential regulation awaiting approval from President Prabowo Subianto.

The draft establishes a roadmap for AI adoption across ministries and regional governments between 2026 and 2029. It aims to improve economic growth and strengthen Indonesia’s competitiveness in AI at both regional and global levels.

Under the proposals, AI would support the free meals programme by helping design local menus, monitor food safety and kitchen hygiene, forecast demand, detect irregularities and integrate health data for early-warning systems. AI would also support free health screenings and tuberculosis testing.

The draft also proposes the creation of a sovereign AI fund, fiscal incentives for researchers and safeguards to address risks such as biometric misuse, intellectual property violations and deepfakes. Experts cautioned that significant infrastructure gaps, limited digital skills and uneven technological capacity could pose challenges to implementation, which remains at an early stage.

Why does it matter?

The proposal illustrates how governments are increasingly seeking to integrate AI into core public-service delivery rather than limiting its use to pilot projects or administrative functions. Applying AI to areas such as nutrition programmes, healthcare screening and public-sector operations could improve efficiency, resource allocation and service delivery for millions of citizens.

The initiative also highlights the challenges facing emerging economies as they pursue AI-driven development. While Indonesia is seeking to build domestic AI capacity through funding mechanisms and incentives, successful implementation will depend on investments in digital infrastructure, technical expertise and governance frameworks capable of addressing risks such as deepfakes, privacy concerns and misuse of biometric data.

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EU selects EUROPA consortium to build multilingual frontier AI model

The European Commission has selected the EUROPA consortium, led by Italian company Domyn, as the winner of its Frontier AI Grand Challenge. The project will develop a large-scale open-source AI model capable of operating across all 24 official languages of the EU.

Launched in February 2026, the competition challenged European AI innovators to propose a frontier model exceeding 400 billion parameters, a scale typically associated with some of the world’s most advanced AI systems.

The Commission said the initiative demonstrates Europe’s capacity to develop advanced AI using its domestic talent, infrastructure and industrial capabilities.

The EUROPA model will be openly accessible and designed to support businesses, researchers, public institutions and developers across the EU. By covering every official EU language, the project aims to address Europe’s linguistic diversity while expanding access to advanced AI technologies.

The Commission views the project as a strategic step towards greater technological sovereignty, strengthening Europe’s AI ecosystem while promoting openness, trust and European values in AI development.

Why does it matter?

The EUROPA project reflects Europe’s growing determination to develop advanced AI capabilities within its own technological ecosystem. As AI becomes increasingly important for economic competitiveness, public services and scientific research, access to large-scale models is emerging as a strategic capability alongside semiconductors, cloud infrastructure and high-performance computing.

The initiative is also notable for its focus on linguistic diversity and open access. By developing a frontier model capable of operating across all 24 official EU languages and making it openly available, the project aims to broaden participation in AI innovation while reducing dependence on a small number of predominantly US-based providers. Its success could become an important test of Europe’s ability to combine technological sovereignty with open and collaborative AI development.

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UNESCO assessment supports ethical AI roadmap in El Salvador

El Salvador has advanced its national AI agenda following the presentation of a Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) report developed by UNESCO in cooperation with the National Artificial Intelligence Agency (ANIA). The initiative brings together government institutions, international organisations, academia and the private sector to assess the country’s preparedness for ethical, inclusive and sustainable AI development.

The assessment is grounded in the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which establishes principles for safe and responsible AI deployment. According to the assessment, El Salvador’s legal and institutional framework, including measures related to data protection, cybersecurity and AI governance, has strengthened its position in regional AI readiness indicators.

The report highlights AI deployments already being used in public services, including digital health diagnostics, automated legal processes and large-scale digitisation of government records. Education systems are also integrating AI tools to expand access to learning, while projected economic gains suggest significant growth potential if ethical adoption continues to scale.

Alongside the findings, authorities outlined priorities aimed at reducing inequalities in access to technology, expanding participation in STEM education and ensuring that AI-related benefits reach both urban and rural communities.

The new National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2026 sets out these priorities as part of a broader human-centred development model.

Why does it matter?

The initiative positions El Salvador as a test case for how emerging economies can align rapid AI adoption with structured governance and ethical safeguards. By embedding human-centred principles into national strategy and law, the country aims to prevent AI-driven gains from widening social or geographic inequalities while strengthening long-term digital readiness.

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OpenAI highlights ChatGPT health improvements

OpenAI says GPT-5.5 Instant has improved ChatGPT health-related responses, including its ability to recognise urgent situations, explain uncertainty, and request relevant context from users.

OpenAI said more than 230 million people use ChatGPT each week for health and wellness-related questions. Common uses include making sense of health information, understanding lab results, preparing for appointments, navigating insurance, building healthier habits, and deciding what to ask next.

OpenAI said GPT-5.5 Instant represents a substantial step forward in ChatGPT health performance. The model is available to free ChatGPT users, subject to usage limits, and now performs at a level comparable to OpenAI’s frontier reasoning models on some of its most demanding health evaluations.

The company said progress reflects both model improvements and physician-led evaluation work. A global network of physicians helps define expected behaviour in real-world health scenarios by reviewing model outputs, identifying failure modes and developing evaluation criteria.

OpenAI said ChatGPT health responses should be accurate, understandable, and grounded in good judgement. The company said stronger performance includes recognising when more context is needed, explaining uncertainty without overstating confidence, and helping people understand when to seek medical care.

The company uses health-specific evaluations, including HealthBench and HealthBench Professional, to assess model responses. These evaluations use realistic health conversations and physician-developed rubrics to assess accuracy, safety, communication quality, contextual awareness, completeness and appropriate escalation to medical care.

OpenAI said GPT-5.5 Instant substantially improved from GPT-5.3 Instant on an aggregate of health evaluations, including HealthBench Professional. In a separate comparison, physicians wrote responses to representative health conversations with unlimited time and internet access, while another physician panel compared those responses with model answers across 3,500 reviews.

The company said GPT-5.5 Instant responses were rated higher than physician-written and older model responses across criteria, including accuracy, communication, completeness, instruction-following, and usefulness for health-related decisions.

OpenAI also said physicians rated GPT-5.5 Instant as having fewer failure modes than older models and physician-written responses. The company cited fewer cases of missing red flags, failing to refer users to care, not tailoring responses to the local healthcare context, or not asking for additional context when needed.

OpenAI said it also uses privacy-preserving monitors on production traffic to track possible factuality issues in ChatGPT health responses. Based on recent health-related production traffic, OpenAI said the proportion of responses containing at least one flagged factuality issue has fallen by 71% over the past two months.

The company said its health work is supported by more than 260 physicians across 60 countries, 49 languages, and 26 medical specialties. Those physicians have reviewed more than 700,000 example model responses reflecting how patients and clinicians use ChatGPT in real-world situations.

OpenAI said physician feedback informs rubrics and evaluation criteria used to assess whether responses are accurate, safe, clear, complete, appropriately cautious, and useful. The company said the work also supports broader healthcare tools, including ChatGPT for Clinicians and OpenAI for Healthcare.

Why does it matter?

Health information is one of the most sensitive and high-impact areas in which consumer AI systems are used. Improvements in how ChatGPT handles uncertainty, identifies potential medical red flags and requests additional context could influence how millions of people interpret symptoms, understand medical information and prepare for interactions with healthcare professionals.

The announcement also highlights the growing importance of domain-specific evaluation in AI development. Rather than relying solely on general-purpose benchmarks, OpenAI is using physician-led reviews, specialised testing frameworks and real-world monitoring to assess performance in healthcare settings. This approach may serve as a model for evaluating AI systems in other high-stakes sectors where accuracy, safety and human oversight are essential.

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China expands AI adoption across consumer economy

China’s Ministry of Commerce and seven other government departments have issued guidelines to accelerate the integration of AI into consumer markets.

The implementation document sets out 17 measures in five areas under an ‘AI plus consumption’ strategy. It aims to expand smart product consumption, support AI-enabled services and create new consumer scenarios.

For goods consumption, the guidelines call for a wider supply of AI products, upgrades to consumer electronics, household appliances and home products, and the development of smart wearable devices. They also promote AI-powered robots for elderly care, companionship and daily assistance.

For services, the measures encourage the use of AI in home services, elderly care, tourism, accommodation, catering and education. Examples include smart elderly-care facilities, AI-enabled tourism services and smart canteens in offices, schools and hospitals.

The guidelines also call for faster development of smart retail, deeper integration of AI with e-commerce and improved smart logistics networks at county, township and village levels. Authorities also want to expand delivery coverage in remote areas.

China will support ‘AI plus consumption’ clusters and AI experience centres, while encouraging rental, sharing and trial use of AI products in public venues. Local authorities are also encouraged to introduce subsidies for next-generation smart terminals and other AI-related consumer products under existing consumer goods trade-in policies.

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Greece and the European Commission strengthen AI cooperation for public services

Greece and the European Commission have reinforced cooperation on AI through a conference held during the BEYOND 2026 exhibition, bringing together policymakers, academics, technology experts and citizens to discuss the future of AI in Europe.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Dimitris Papastergiou emphasised the importance of responsible and innovative AI adoption to improve public services, drive digital transformation and strengthen Greece’s competitiveness.

European Commission Director-General for Translation Christos Ellinides outlined the EU’s approach to AI, highlighting initiatives that support innovation, multilingualism and digital transformation across member states.

Commission experts presented AI-powered multilingual services and digital tools designed to improve communication, accessibility and collaboration across the European Union. Discussions also explored the opportunities and challenges associated with AI deployment, while emphasising the importance of maintaining a human-centric approach to technological development.

The conference concluded with calls for closer cooperation between European institutions and national authorities to develop reliable, secure and human-centric AI systems. Organisers said the initiative reflects Greece’s commitment to advancing digital transformation and strengthening its role within the emerging European AI ecosystem.

Why does it matter?

The conference highlights how AI policy in Europe is increasingly being shaped through cooperation between EU institutions and national governments. As countries seek to deploy AI across public services, education and digital infrastructure, coordination will be important for ensuring interoperability, trust and compliance with European regulatory frameworks.

The event also reflects Europe’s broader approach to AI governance, which aims to balance innovation with safeguards related to transparency, security and fundamental rights. By promoting multilingual AI tools, citizen-centred services and cross-border collaboration, initiatives such as this support the EU’s wider objectives of digital sovereignty, competitiveness and inclusive digital transformation.

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Asian Development Bank launches digital transformation strategy focused on AI and inclusion

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new digital transformation strategy aimed at helping countries across Asia and the Pacific harness AI and digital technologies while protecting vulnerable groups from associated risks.

According to ADB, the strategy will run from 2026 to 2030 and focus on expanding digital connectivity, strengthening digital skills, enhancing cybersecurity and privacy protections, improving data governance and promoting the responsible use of AI.

The bank said it will support the development of digital infrastructure, secure and interoperable systems, and measures to ensure that underserved communities can benefit from digital technologies.

ADB said it will also convene governments, private-sector actors and development partners to mobilise financing, share expertise and accelerate digital technologies initiatives across the regions.

Why does it matter?

The strategy reflects the growing recognition that digital transformation is becoming a key driver of economic development, public-sector modernisation and social inclusion. As AI, digital platforms and data-driven services become more important to competitiveness, countries with stronger digital infrastructure, skills and governance frameworks are likely to be better positioned to capture their benefits.

The initiative also highlights the need to balance innovation with safeguards. Expanding access to AI and digital technologies can create opportunities for growth and service delivery, but it also raises challenges related to cybersecurity, privacy, digital inequality and responsible AI governance. By combining investment in infrastructure with support for digital skills and governance, ADB is positioning digital transformation as both a development priority and a policy challenge for the region.

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OECD publishes AI literacy framework for schools

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a new report, ‘Empowering Learners for the Age of AI‘, outlining an AI literacy framework for primary and secondary education.

According to the OECD, AI is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday digital life and is influencing civic, professional and social outcomes. The organisation argues that education systems must equip young people with the knowledge and skills needed to understand, evaluate and use AI responsibly.

The report defines AI literacy as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable learners to understand how AI systems function, critically evaluate their outputs and use them ethically, responsibly and creatively.

The OECD said the framework outlines learning outcomes for primary and secondary students and is intended to support policymakers, educators, schools and families in fostering AI literacy both inside and outside the classroom. The report was published on 18 June 2026.

Why does it matter?

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into education, work, public services and everyday life, AI literacy is emerging as a foundational skill alongside traditional digital literacy. Understanding how AI systems operate, where their limitations lie and how their outputs should be evaluated will be important for informed participation in society and the economy.

The OECD framework also reflects a broader policy shift from focusing solely on access to technology toward developing the skills needed to use AI responsibly and critically. By providing a common reference point for educators and policymakers, the framework could help shape future curricula, teacher training programmes and national education strategies aimed at preparing students for an AI-enabled world.

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Digital Decade report showcases Spain’s progress in AI and connectivity

Spain has strengthened its position as one of the EU’s leading digital economies, according to the European Commission’s 2026 State of the Digital Decade report.

The assessment highlights Spain’s strong performance in connectivity, digital public services, AI adoption and digital skills, with the country outperforming the EU average across several key indicators.

The report notes that Spain remains a European leader in digital infrastructure. Spain has the highest share of internet connections delivering speeds of 100 Mbps or more and ranks second in fibre-optic coverage across the EU. Fibre networks now reach almost 96% of the population, while 5G coverage exceeds 99% nationwide and nearly 96% in rural areas.

The Commission also highlighted investments in submarine cables and connectivity programmes that have reinforced Spain’s role as a key digital gateway between Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Spain also continues to rank among the EU’s top performers in digital public services. The Commission cited improvements to the ‘Mi Carpeta Ciudadana’ platform, which expanded services and incorporated user feedback during 2025.

Spain also ranks among Europe’s best performers in prefilled administrative forms, helping citizens interact more efficiently with public authorities. Digital services for both citizens and businesses remain significantly above the EU average.

The report also highlights the growing adoption of advanced technologies by Spanish businesses. AI adoption among Spanish businesses increased from 11.3% in 2024 to 20.3% in 2025, slightly above the EU average.

Data analytics adoption reached 47.1%, while digitalisation among small and medium-sized enterprises continued to improve through initiatives such as Kit Digital, Kit Consulting and Acelera Pyme.

The Commission also highlighted Spain’s commitment to quantum technologies, cybersecurity resilience and digital skills development, with 66.5% of the population now possessing at least basic digital skills.

Why does it matter?

Spain’s performance illustrates how sustained investment in digital infrastructure, public services and innovation can translate into broader economic and technological competitiveness. High levels of fibre connectivity, widespread digital public services and growing AI adoption provide a foundation for productivity growth and support the country’s position within Europe’s digital economy.

The findings are also relevant to the EU’s broader ambitions around technological sovereignty. As Europe seeks to reduce strategic dependencies in critical technologies, countries such as Spain are becoming important contributors to the bloc’s digital capacity through investments in connectivity, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and digital skills. Continued progress in these areas will be important for meeting the EU’s 2030 Digital Decade objectives.

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