It outlined major risks—such as quantum’s dual-use nature threatening encryption, a widening technological divide, and severe gender imbalances in the field—and urged immediate global action to build safeguards before quantum capabilities mature.
UNESCO’s Guilherme Canela emphasised that innovation and human rights are not mutually exclusive but fundamentally interlinked, warning against a ‘false dichotomy’ between the two. Lead author Shamira Ahmed highlighted the need for proactive frameworks to ensure quantum benefits are equitably distributed and not used to deepen global inequalities or erode rights.
With 79% of quantum firms lacking female leadership and a mere 1 in 54 job applicants being women, the gender gap was called ‘staggering.’ Ahmed proposed infrastructure investment, policy reforms, capacity development, and leveraging the UN’s International Year of Quantum to accelerate global discussions.
Panellists echoed the urgency. Constance Bommelaer de Leusse from Sciences Po advocated for embedding multistakeholder participation into governance processes and warned of a looming ‘quantum arms race.’ Professor Pieter Vermaas of Delft University urged moving from talk to international collaboration, suggesting the creation of global quantum research centres.
Journalist Elodie Vialle raised alarms about quantum’s potential to supercharge surveillance, endangering press freedom and digital privacy, and underscored the need to close the cultural gap between technologists and civil society.
Overall, the session championed a future where quantum technology is developed transparently, governed globally, and serves as a digital public good, bridging divides rather than deepening them. Speakers agreed that the time to act is now, before today’s opportunities become tomorrow’s crises.
Track all key events from the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025 on our dedicated page.
The US is preparing stricter export controls on high-end Nvidia AI chips destined for Malaysia and Thailand, in a move to block China’s indirect access to advanced GPU hardware.
According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the new restrictions would require exporters to obtain licences before sending AI processors to either country.
The change follows reports that Chinese engineers have hand-carried data to Malaysia for AI training after Singapore began restricting chip re-exports.
Washington suspects Chinese firms are using Southeast Asian intermediaries, including shell companies, to bypass existing export bans on AI chips like Nvidia’s H100.
Although some easing has occurred between the US and China in areas such as ethane and engine components, Washington remains committed to its broader decoupling strategy. The proposed measures will reportedly include safeguards to prevent regional supply chain disruption.
Malaysia’s Trade Minister confirmed earlier this year that the US had requested detailed monitoring of all Nvidia chip shipments into the country.
As the global race for AI dominance intensifies, Washington appears determined to tighten enforcement and limit Beijing’s access to advanced computing power.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Pakistan has launched its first AI-powered Customs Clearance and Risk Management System (RMS) to cut tax evasion, reduce corruption, and modernise port operations by automating inspections and declarations.
The initiative, part of broader digital reforms, is led by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with support from the Intelligence Bureau.
By minimising human involvement in customs procedures, the system enables faster, fairer, and more transparent processing. It uses AI and automated bots to assess goods’ value and classification, improve risk profiling, and streamline green channel clearances.
Early trials showed a 92% boost in system performance and more than double the efficiency in identifying compliant cargo.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the collaboration between the FBR and IB, calling the initiative a key pillar of national economic reform. He urged full integration of the system into the country’s digital infrastructure and reaffirmed tax reform as a government priority.
The AI system is also expected to close loopholes in under-invoicing and misdeclaration, which have long been used to avoid duties.
Meanwhile, video analytics technology is trialled to detect factory tax fraud, with early tests showing 98% accuracy. In recent enforcement efforts, authorities recovered Rs178 billion, highlighting the potential of data-driven approaches in tackling fiscal losses.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Samsung Electronics expects its second-quarter operating profits to exceed half, citing Washington’s export controls on advanced AI chips to China.
The company announced a projected 56% year-on-year drop in operating profit, falling to 4.6 trillion won ($3.3 billion), with revenue down 6.5% from the previous quarter.
The semiconductor division, a core part of Samsung’s business, suffered due to reduced utilisation and inventory value adjustments.
US restrictions have made it difficult for South Korea’s largest conglomerate to ship high-end chips to China, forcing some of its production lines to run below capacity.
Despite weak performance in the foundry sector, the memory business remained relatively stable. Analysts pointed to weaker-than-expected sales of HBM chips used for AI and a drop in NAND storage prices, while a declining won-dollar exchange rate further pressured earnings.
Looking ahead, Samsung expects a modest recovery as demand for memory chips, mainly from AI-driven data centres, improves in the year’s second half.
The company is also facing political pressure from Washington, with threats of new tariffs prompting talks between Seoul and the US administration.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Wimbledon’s decision to fully replace human line judges with an AI-powered system has sparked growing discontent among players and fans.
Although designed for precision, the Hawk-Eye Live system has made questionable calls, been difficult to hear during matches, and even shut down unexpectedly, raising concerns about its reliability.
British players Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu both expressed frustration over key points lost due to what they believed were inaccurate calls. Sonay Kartal’s match was interrupted in a particularly disruptive incident when the AI system crashed mid-game, prompting organisers to apologise.
The All England Club defends the system as more impartial than human officials, but not everyone agrees. Over 300 line judges lost their jobs, and some staged protests outside the grounds.
With no way to challenge calls made by the machine, players say the system removes accountability and human judgement from the sport.
While Wimbledon continues to market the move as progress, critics argue that the tournament has sacrificed tradition and clarity for automation.
As other Grand Slams like the French Open retain human officials, questions remain over whether AI is improving the sport or changing it for the worse.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
According to analysts at Morgan Stanley, Reliance Industries is set to grow its market value by $50 billion through large-scale investments in AI infrastructure and new energy. The conglomerate, led by Mukesh Ambani, is retooling its energy and digital units as part of a long-term transformation strategy.
Central to this growth is constructing a generative AI data centre in Jamnagar, India, which will feature 1GW of capacity powered by 1.3GW of green energy. Reliance plans to source this power from its rapidly scaling renewable ecosystem, including solar and green hydrogen.
The firm aims to integrate 10GW of solar capacity by 2026 and has launched lithium battery and green hydrogen projects on a 2,000-acre site in Gujarat. Nvidia’s Blackwell chips will power the upcoming data centres, signalling Reliance’s ambition to make India a hub for next-gen digital infrastructure.
Morgan Stanley estimates up to $60 billion in value creation from the clean energy vertical alone, as Reliance uses electricity to drive data centres, refineries, and chemical facilities. The strategy reflects a broader vision to replace traditional operations with AI-driven, sustainable systems at a global scale.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
A US federal court has ordered OpenAI to preserve nearly all user chats with ChatGPT, including those that users had deleted. The decision comes as part of The New York Times’s ongoing copyright lawsuit, triggering widespread privacy concerns.
The ruling means that millions of personal conversations, previously thought erased, will remain accessible during litigation. These exchanges may include medical queries, relationship issues, and other private matters shared in confidence.
Privacy advocates argue that users were not notified or allowed to object. Critics warn the US ruling sets a dangerous precedent, enabling mass data preservation in lawsuits unrelated to most users.
The Times claims users may have deleted chats to hide copyright infringement. Lawyers and privacy experts counter that people delete chats for legitimate, non-infringing reasons and should retain control over their data.
Legal experts call the preservation order excessive, noting it undermines trust in AI tools and could lead to a chilling effect on their use. The decision could reshape how user privacy is treated in tech litigation for years.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
At the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025 in Geneva, global leaders and experts gathered to reflect on the two-decade legacy of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and chart a course for the future of digital cooperation. Moderated by Anriette Esterhuysen of the Association for Progressive Communications, the panel underscored how the WSIS process helped connect over 5.6 billion people to the internet and solidified the importance of multistakeholder governance.
Speakers lauded successes in infrastructure and inclusion but were clear-eyed about persistent gaps, especially the 2.5 billion people who still lack connectivity.
He expressed concern over the drift from WSIS’s original vision of a global information society toward digital sovereignty, urging participants to stay true to a collaborative global model.
Experts emphasised the need for future frameworks to evolve without duplicating efforts. Professor Kathleen Kramer of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers highlighted the urgency of strong STEM education and technical standards to scale emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing responsibly.
The session closed with a renewed commitment to WSIS’s people-centred, inclusive values, even as the digital landscape becomes increasingly complex. With reflections on past achievements and a unified call for non-duplicative, collaborative governance, panellists offered a hopeful yet pragmatic vision for the next chapter of global digital development.
Track all key events from the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025 on our dedicated page.
After a formal filing by the Independent Publishers Alliance, Google has faced an antitrust complaint in the European Union over its AI Overviews feature.
The group alleges that Google has been using web content without proper consent to power its AI-generated summaries, causing considerable harm to online publishers.
The complaint claims that publishers have lost traffic, readers and advertising revenue due to these summaries. It also argues that opting out of AI Overviews is not a real choice unless publishers are prepared to vanish entirely from Google’s search results.
AI Overviews were launched over a year ago and now appear at the top of many search queries, summarising information using AI. Although the tool has expanded rapidly, critics argue it drives users away from original publisher websites, especially news outlets.
Google has responded by stating its AI search tools allow users to ask more complex questions and help businesses and creators get discovered. The tech giant also insisted that web traffic patterns are influenced by many factors and warned against conclusions based on limited data.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
The EU has confirmed it will enforce its originally scheduled AI Act, despite growing calls from American and European tech firms to delay the rollout.
Major companies, including Alphabet, Meta, ASML and Mistral, have urged the European Commission to push back the timeline by several years, citing concerns over compliance costs.
Rejecting the pressure, a Commission spokesperson clarified there would be no pause or grace period. The legislation’s deadlines remain, with general-purpose AI rules taking effect this August and stricter requirements for high-risk systems following August 2026.
The AI Act represents the EU’s effort to regulate AI across various sectors, aiming to balance innovation and public safety. While tech giants argue that the rules are too demanding, the EU insists legal certainty is vital and the framework must move forward as planned.
The Commission intends to simplify the process later in the year, such as easing reporting demands for smaller businesses. Yet the core structure and deadlines of the AI Act will not be altered.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
