Digital cooperation

Health sector AI growth in Europe raises safety concerns

Concerns are growing as European countries expand the use of AI in healthcare without establishing sufficient protections for patients or healthcare workers.

A new World Health Organisation report found significant disparities in how nations develop, regulate and fund AI tools.

Some countries are rapidly deploying chatbots, imaging systems and data-analysis tools, while others have barely started integrating AI into their health services. Only four nations across Europe and Central Asia currently have a national strategy dedicated to AI in health care.

WHO officials warn that weak safeguards could lead to biassed algorithms, medical errors and increased inequality in access to care.

The report urges governments to strengthen legal frameworks, train health workers in AI literacy and ensure these technologies are rigorously tested before reaching patients.

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Europe’s digital sovereignty advances through SAP’s new AI collaborations

SAP has announced new partnerships with Bleu, Capgemini, and Mistral AI to advance Europe’s digital sovereignty. The collaboration combines SAP’s expertise in enterprise software with France’s AI ecosystem to develop secure, scalable, and sovereign cloud solutions for governments and regulated sectors.

Bleu and Delos Cloud have established a Franco-German alliance focused on crisis resilience, creating joint capabilities for early detection, analysis, and remediation of cyber incidents. Their cooperation supports rapid response in extreme scenarios and reinforces control over critical infrastructure.

SAP and Capgemini are expanding their partnership to advance sovereign agentic AI and strengthen cybersecurity across Europe. Their new Sovereign Technology Partnership will deliver data management, cloud services, and automation tools for public and regulated sectors.

SAP and Mistral AI are also deepening their collaboration to create Europe’s first full sovereign AI stack. SAP will offer Mistral’s frontier models through its sovereign AI foundation on SAP BTP, while both companies co-develop industry-specific AI applications designed for engineering and R&D workloads.

These partnerships form part of SAP’s broader sovereign cloud strategy, backed by more than €20bn in investment. SAP states that its aim is to provide a secure, compliant, and locally controlled infrastructure that enables innovation while safeguarding European data, assets, and long-term technological independence.

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WHO warns Europe faces widening risks as AI outpaces regulation

A new WHO Europe report warns that AI is advancing faster than health policies can keep up, risking wider inequalities without stronger safeguards. AI already helps doctors with diagnostics, reduces paperwork and improves patient communication, yet significant structural safeguards remain incomplete.

The assessment, covering 50 participating countries across the region, shows that governments acknowledge AI’s transformative potential in personalised medicine, disease surveillance and clinical efficiency. Only a small number, however, have established national strategies.

Estonia, Finland and Spain stand out for early adoption- whether through integrated digital records, AI training programmes or pilots in primary care- but most nations face mounting regulatory gaps.

Legal uncertainty remains the most common obstacle, with 86 percent of countries citing unclear rules as the primary barrier to adoption, followed by financial constraints. Fewer than 10 percent have liability standards defining responsibility when AI-driven decisions cause harm.

WHO urged governments to align AI policy with public health goals, strengthen legal and ethical frameworks, improve cross-border data governance and invest in an AI-literate workforce to ensure patients stay at the centre of the transformation.

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UNESCO and SAP selected the AI system EDiSON for the Solomon Islands

SAP and UNESCO have agreed to deploy the AI-supported disaster management system EDiSON in the Solomon Islands.

The platform, created by SAP Japan and the start-up INSPIRATION PLUS, utilises the SAP Business Technology Platform with machine learning to merge real-time meteorological information with historical records, rather than relying on isolated datasets.

A system that delivers predictive insights that help authorities act before severe weather strikes. It anticipates terrain damage, guides emergency services towards threatened areas and supports decisions on evacuation orders.

The initiative aims to serve as a model for other small island states facing similar climate-related pressures.

UNESCO officials say the project strengthens early warning capacity and encourages long-term resilience. EDiSON will become operational in 2026 and aims to offer a scalable approach for nations with limited technical resources.

Its performance in Japan has already demonstrated how integrated data management can overcome fragmented information flows and restricted analytical tools.

The design of EDiSON enables governments to adopt advanced disaster preparedness systems instead of relying on costly, bespoke infrastructure. A partnership that seeks to improve national readiness in the Solomon Islands, where earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones and floods regularly threaten communities.

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Meta wins antitrust case over monopoly claims

Meta has defeated a major antitrust challenge after a US federal judge ruled it does not currently hold monopoly power in social networking. The decision spares the company from being forced to separate Instagram and WhatsApp, which regulators had argued were acquired to suppress competition.

The judge found the Federal Trade Commission failed to prove Meta maintains present-day dominance, noting that the market has been reshaped by rivals such as TikTok. Meta argued it now faces intense competition across mobile platforms as user behaviour shifts rapidly.

FTC lawyers revisited internal emails linked to Meta’s past acquisitions, but the ruling emphasised that the case required proof of ongoing violations.

Analysts say the outcome contrasts sharply with recent decisions against Google in search and advertising, signalling mixed fortunes for large tech firms.

Industry observers note that Meta still faces substantial regulatory pressure, including upcoming US trials regarding children’s mental health and questions about its heavy investment in AI.

The company welcomed the ruling and stated that it intends to continue developing products within a competitive market framework.

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Arizona astronomer creates ray-tracing method to make AI less overconfident

A University of Arizona astronomer, Peter Behroozi, has developed a novel technique to make AI systems more trustworthy by enabling them to quantify when they might be wrong.

Behroozi’s method adapts ray tracing, traditionally used in computer graphics, to explore the high-dimensional spaces in which AI models operate, thereby allowing the system to gauge uncertainty more effectively.

He uses a Bayesian-sampling approach: rather than relying on a single model, the system effectively consults a ‘whole range of experts’ by training many models in parallel and observing the diversity of their outputs.

This advance addresses a critical problem in modern AI: ‘wrong-but-confident’ outputs, situations where a model gives a single, confident answer that may be incorrect. According to Behroozi, his technique is orders of magnitude faster than traditional uncertainty-quantification methods, making it practical even for extensive neural networks.

The implications are broad, extending from healthcare to finance to autonomous systems: AI that knows its own limits could reduce risk and increase reliability. Behroozi hopes his code, now publicly available, will be adopted by other researchers working under high-stakes conditions.

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AI promises better communication tools for disabled users

Students with disabilities met technology executives at National Star College in Gloucestershire, UK to explain what they need from communication devices. Battery life emerged as the top priority, with users saying they need devices that last 24 hours without charging so they can communicate all day long.

One student who controls his device by moving his eyes said losing power during the day feels like having his voice ripped away from him. Another student with cerebral palsy wants her device to help her run a bath independently and eventually design fairground rides that disabled people can enjoy.

Technology companies responded by promising artificial intelligence improvements that will make the devices work much faster. The new AI features will help users type more quickly, correct mistakes automatically and even create personalised voices that sound like the actual person speaking.

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NVIDIA pushes forward with AI-ready data

Enterprises are facing growing pressure to prepare unstructured data for use in modern AI systems as organisations struggle to turn prototypes into production tools.

Around forty percent of AI projects advance beyond the pilot phase, largely due to limits in data quality and availability. Most organisational information now comes in unstructured form, ranging from emails to video files, which offers little coherence and places a heavy load on governance systems.

AI agents need secure, recent and reliable data instead of fragmented information scattered across multiple storage silos. Preparing such data demands extensive curation, metadata work, semantic chunking and the creation of vector embeddings.

Enterprises also struggle with the rising speed of data creation and the spread of duplicate copies, which increases both operational cost and security concerns.

An emerging approach by NVIDIA, known as the AI data platform, aims to address these challenges by embedding GPU acceleration directly into the data path. The platform prepares and indexes information in place, allowing enterprises to reduce data drift, strengthen governance and avoid unnecessary replication.

Any change to a source document is immediately reflected in the associated AI representations, improving accuracy and consistency for business applications.

NVIDIA is positioning its own AI Data Platform reference design as a next step for enterprise storage. The design combines RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, BlueField three DPUs and integrated AI processing pipelines.

Leading technology providers including Cisco, Dell Technologies, IBM, HPE, NetApp, Pure Storage and others have adopted the model as they prepare storage systems for broader use of generative AI in the enterprise sector.

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OpenAI and Intuit expand financial AI collaboration

Yesterday, OpenAI and Intuit announced a major strategic partnership aimed at reshaping how people manage their personal and business finances. The arrangement will allow Intuit apps to appear directly inside ChatGPT, enabling secure and personalised financial actions within a single environment.

An agreement that is worth more than one hundred million dollars and reinforces Intuit’s long-term push to strengthen its AI-driven expert platform.

Intuit will broaden its use of OpenAI’s most advanced models to support financial tasks across its products. Frontier models will help power AI agents that assist with tax preparation, cash flow forecasting, payroll management and wider financial planning.

Intuit will also continue using ChatGPT Enterprise internally so employees can work with greater speed and accuracy.

The partnership is expected to help consumers make more informed financial choices instead of relying on fragmented tools. Users will be able to explore suitable credit offers, receive clearer tax answers, estimate refunds and connect with tax specialists.

Businesses will gain tailored insights based on real time data that can improve cash flow, automate customer follow ups and support more effective outreach through email marketing.

Leaders from both companies argue that the collaboration will give people and firms a meaningful financial advantage. They say greater personalisation, deeper data analysis and more effortless decision making will support stronger household finances and more resilient small enterprises.

The deal expands the growing community of OpenAI enterprise customers and strengthens Intuit’s position in global financial technology.

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Growing internet connections mask deep inequalities, says ITU report

According to a recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report, the number of internet connections continues to grow, but important inequalities persist across quality, affordability and usage.

The ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025 report estimates that nearly 6 billion people (around three-quarters of the world’s population) are online in 2025, up from 5.8 billion in 2024. Despite the increase, 2.2 billion remain offline, the majority in low- and middle-income countries.

The divide is especially stark in quality of connection. While 5G now reaches 55 per cent of the global population, coverage is heavily skewed: just 4 per cent of people in low-income countries have 5G access, compared to 84 per cent in high-income economies.

Users in wealthier countries also generate much more data, a typical user in a high-income country now sends or receives nearly eight times more mobile data than someone in a low-income country.

Affordability remains a major hurdle: even with falling median prices for mobile broadband, access is still unaffordable for about 60 per cent of the population in many low- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, digital skills, especially advanced skills like online safety, problem-solving and content-creation, lag behind basic usage, limiting how effectively people can benefit from connectivity.

ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin emphasised that achieving universal and meaningful connectivity isn’t just about getting people online, it also requires prioritising speed, reliability, cost and skills.

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