Digital cooperation Archives | Page 20 of 197

From chips to jobs: Huang’s vision for AI at Davos 2026

AI is evolving into a foundational economic system rather than a standalone technology, according to NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang, who described AI as a five-layer infrastructure spanning energy, hardware, data centres, models and applications.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Huang argued that building and operating each layer is triggering what he called the most significant infrastructure expansion in human history, with job creation stretching from power generation and construction to cloud operations and software development.

Investment patterns suggest a structural shift instead of a speculative cycle. Venture capital funding in 2025 reached record levels, largely flowing into AI-native firms across healthcare, manufacturing, robotics and financial services.

Huang stressed that the application layer will deliver the most significant economic return as AI moves from experimentation to core operational use across industries.

Concerns around job displacement were framed as misplaced. AI automates tasks rather than replacing professional judgement, enabling workers to focus on higher-value activities.

In healthcare, productivity gains from AI-assisted diagnostics and documentation are already increasing demand for radiologists and nurses rather than reducing headcount, as improved efficiency enables institutions to treat more patients.

Huang positioned AI as critical national infrastructure, urging governments to develop domestic capabilities aligned with local language, culture and industrial strengths.

He described AI literacy as an essential skill, comparable to leadership or management, while arguing that accessible AI tools could narrow global technology divides rather than widen them.

Diplo is live reporting on all sessions from the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos.

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South Korea sets the global standard for frontier AI regulation

South Korea will begin enforcing its Artificial Intelligence Act on Thursday, becoming the first country to introduce formal safety requirements for high-performance, or frontier, AI systems, reshaping the global regulatory landscape.

The law establishes a national AI governance framework, led by the Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and creates an AI Safety Institute to oversee safety and trust assessments.

Alongside regulatory measures, the government is rolling out broad support for research, data infrastructure, talent development, startups, and overseas expansion, signalling a growth-oriented policy stance.

To minimise early disruption, authorities will introduce a minimum one-year grace period centred on guidance, consultation, and education rather than enforcement.

Obligations cover three areas: high-impact AI in critical sectors, safety rules for frontier models, and transparency requirements for generative AI, including disclosure of realistic synthetic content.

Enforcement remains light-touch, prioritising corrective orders over penalties, with fines capped at 30 million won for persistent noncompliance. Officials said the framework aims to build public trust while supporting innovation, serving as a foundation for ongoing policy development.

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AI model maps how humans form emotions

Researchers in Japan have developed an AI framework designed to model how humans form emotional experiences by integrating bodily signals, sensory input and language. The work was led by scientists at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in collaboration with Osaka University.

The AI model draws on the theory of constructed emotion, which suggests emotions are built by the brain rather than hard-wired responses. Physiological data, visual cues and spoken descriptions were analysed together to replicate how people experience feelings in real situations.

Using unlabeled data from volunteers exposed to emotion-evoking images and videos, the system identified emotional patterns without predefined categories. Results showed about 75 percent alignment with participants’ own emotional assessments, well above chance levels.

The Japanese researchers say the approach could support emotion-aware AI applications in healthcare, robotics and mental health support. Findings were published in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, with potential benefits for understanding emotions that are difficult to express verbally.

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Why AI systems privilege Western perspectives: ‘The Silicon Gaze’

A new study from the University of Oxford argues that large language models reproduce a distinctly Western hierarchy when asked to evaluate countries, reinforcing long-standing global inequalities through automated judgment.

Analysing more than 20 million English-language responses from ChatGPT’s 4o-mini model, researchers found consistent favouring of wealthy Western nations across subjective comparisons such as intelligence, happiness, creativity, and innovation.

Low-income countries, particularly across Africa, were systematically placed at the bottom of rankings, while Western Europe, the US, and parts of East Asia dominated positive assessments.

According to the study, generative models rely heavily on data availability and dominant narratives, leading to flattened representations that recycle familiar stereotypes instead of reflecting social complexity or cultural diversity.

The researchers describe the phenomenon as the ‘silicon gaze’, a worldview shaped by the priorities of platform owners, developers, and historically uneven training data.

Because large language models are trained on material produced within centuries of structural exclusion, bias emerges not as a malfunction but as an embedded feature of contemporary AI systems.

The findings intensify global debates around AI governance, accountability, and cultural representation, particularly as such systems increasingly influence healthcare, employment screening, education, and public decision-making.

While models are continuously updated, the study underlines the limits of technical mitigation without broader political, regulatory, and epistemic interventions.

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How Microsoft is shaping UN reform through digital infrastructure

Microsoft has announced a multi-year pledge to support the United Nations’ UN80 reform initiative, positioning AI and digital infrastructure as central tools for modernising multilateral governance.

The commitment follows agreement among all UN member states on efficiency and financial-stability measures, as the organisation faces growing operational demands amid constrained resources.

The initiative includes a dedicated innovation fund, preferential pricing for digital services, and free AI training for UN staff across agencies and missions.

Rather than focusing on policy direction, Microsoft frames its role as enabling institutional capacity, from procurement and logistics to humanitarian response and development planning, while encouraging other private-sector actors to align behind UN80 priorities.

Microsoft also plans to mobilise partners such as EY to support reform efforts, reinforcing a model where large technology firms contribute expertise, infrastructure, and coordination capacity to global governance systems.

Previous collaborations with UNICEF, UNHCR, ITU, and the ILO are cited as evidence that AI-driven tools can accelerate service delivery at scale.

The pledge highlights how multilateral reform increasingly depends on private technological ecosystems instead of purely intergovernmental solutions.

As AI becomes embedded in the core operations of international institutions, questions around accountability, influence, and long-term dependency are likely to shape debates about the future balance between public authority and corporate power.

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New AI system helps improve cross-neurotype communication

Researchers at Tufts University have developed an AI-based learning tool designed to improve communication between autistic and neurotypical people. The project focuses on helping non-autistic users better understand autistic communication preferences.

The tool, called NeuroBridge, uses large language models to simulate everyday conversations and highlight how wording, tone and clarity can be interpreted differently. Users are guided towards more direct and unambiguous communication styles that reduce misunderstanding.

Unlike many interventions, NeuroBridge does not aim to change how autistic people communicate. The AI system instead trains neurotypical users to adapt their own communication, reflecting principles from the social model of disability.

The research, presented at the ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, received a best student paper award. Early testing showed users gained clearer insight into how everyday language choices can affect cross-neurotype interactions.

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New consortium applies AI to early drug research

A new AI-driven drug discovery initiative with a budget exceeding €60 million has launched, bringing together academic and industry partners across Europe and North America. University College London is acting as the lead academic partner in the UK.

The five-year LIGAND-AI programme is funded through the Innovative Health Initiative and aims to speed up early drug discovery. Researchers will generate large open datasets showing how molecules bind to human proteins, supporting the training of advanced AI models.

The consortium, led by Pfizer and the Structural Genomics Consortium, includes 18 partners in nine countries. Work will focus on proteins linked to diseases such as cancer, neurological conditions and rare disorders.

UK based UCL scientists will help build global research networks and promote open sharing of protein samples and machine learning models. Organisers say the project supports open science and long-term goals to map chemical modulators for every human protein.

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EU telecoms reform advances in small steps

The European Commission has unveiled the Digital Networks Act, aiming to reduce fragmentation across the EU telecoms sector. Proposals include limited spectrum harmonisation and an EU-wide numbering scheme to support cross-border business services.

Despite years of debate, the plan stops short of creating a fully unified telecoms market. National governments continue to resist deeper integration, particularly around control of 4G, 5G and wi-fi spectrum management.

The proposal reflects a cautious approach from the European Commission, balancing political pressure for reform against opposition from member states. Longstanding calls for consolidation have struggled to gain consensus.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has backed greater market integration, though the latest measures represent an incremental step rather than a structural overhaul.

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Horizon1000 aims to bring powerful AI healthcare tools to Africa

The Gates Foundation and OpenAI have launched a joint healthcare initiative, Horizon1000, to expand the use of AI across primary care systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. The partnership includes a $50 million commitment in funding, technology, and technical support to equip 1,000 clinics with AI tools by 2028.

Horizon1000’s Operations will begin in Rwanda, where local authorities will work with the two organisations to deploy AI systems in frontline healthcare settings. The initiative reflects the Foundation’s long-standing aim to ensure that new technologies reach lower-income regions without long delays.

Bill Gates said the project responds to a critical shortage of healthcare workers, which threatens to undermine decades of progress in global health. Sub-Saharan Africa currently faces a shortfall of nearly six million medical professionals, limiting the capacity of overstretched clinics to deliver consistent care.

Low-quality healthcare contributes to between six and eight million deaths annually in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. Rwanda, the first pilot country, has only one healthcare worker per 1,000 people, far below the WHO’s recommended level.

AI tools under Horizon1000 are intended to support, rather than replace, health workers by assisting with clinical guidance, administration, and patient interactions. The Gates Foundation said it will continue working with regional governments and innovators to scale the programme.

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OpenAI models embedded into ServiceNow for enterprise automation

ServiceNow has announced a multi-year agreement positioning OpenAI as a preferred intelligence capability across its enterprise platform, extending access to frontier AI models for organisations running tens of billions of workflows each year.

The partnership reflects a broader shift towards operational AI embedded directly within business systems instead of experimental deployments.

By integrating OpenAI models such as GPT-5.2 into the ServiceNow AI Platform, enterprises can embed reasoning and automation into secure workflows spanning IT, finance, human resources, and customer operations.

AI tools are designed to analyse context, recommend actions, and execute tasks within existing governance frameworks instead of functioning as standalone assistants.

Executives from both companies emphasised that the collaboration aims to deliver measurable outcomes at scale.

ServiceNow highlighted its role in coordinating complex enterprise environments, while OpenAI stressed the importance of deploying agentic AI capable of handling work end to end within permissioned infrastructures.

Looking ahead, the partnership plans to expand towards multimodal and voice-based interactions, enabling employees to communicate with AI systems through speech, text, and visual inputs.

The initiative strengthens OpenAI’s enterprise footprint while reinforcing ServiceNow’s ambition to act as a central control layer for AI-driven business operations.

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