A research team led by Professor Jude Kong from the University of Toronto is developing new tools to monitor, assess, and govern the use of AI in public health across the Global Majority, with a particular focus on Africa.
The team, which includes Jake Effoduh, Jim Hinton, Abbas Yazdinejad, and Maral Niaz, has begun mapping how AI is being integrated into healthcare systems and infrastructure. The work focuses on identifying key actors, technologies and use cases, providing a clearer picture of how AI is becoming embedded in public health systems.
The next phase involves developing a dynamic dashboard designed to track AI systems and support evidence-based decision-making. Rather than relying solely on top-down governance frameworks, the team aims to co-develop tools that policymakers, civil society organisations, educators and practitioners can use in their own contexts.
In practice, this means creating tools that are not only technically robust but also socially legitimate and locally relevant. While strengthening AI literacy and governance capacity across the Global Majority, the initiative aims to empower policymakers with evidence-based insights, support civil society in understanding AI systems, and enable more informed and inclusive decision-making processes.
By bringing together expertise in technology, law, public policy and social impact, the project reflects the multidisciplinary nature of AI governance. The team will present its findings at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, during ITU’s Kaleidoscope sessions on Thursday, 9 July 2026, from 15:30 to 16:30.
Why does this matter in AI world?
AI for the Global Majority (AI4GM) is a joint initiative of the Geneva Graduate Institute, Microsoft and the International Telecommunication Union. The initiative supports research on how AI can benefit majority populations in areas including governance, education, health, finance, and digital innovation.
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M42’s National Reference Laboratory has introduced an AI-powered tool for prostate cancer diagnostics in the UAE in partnership with digital pathology company Qritive. The platform will be integrated into the laboratory’s diagnostic workflow at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
The system analyses digital pathology slides, highlights suspicious findings and provides structured insights to help pathologists detect prostate cancer and assess disease severity. It is designed to identify cancerous tissue, assess tumour patterns, support grading according to internationally recognised standards and measure tumour burden.
M42 said the technology is intended to assist medical professionals rather than replace them, with final clinical decisions remaining the responsibility of physicians. The company said AI can help pathologists make complex decisions more efficiently, reduce interpretation variation, and support better patient outcomes.
NRL said the platform could help healthcare providers manage growing diagnostic demand while giving patients and clinicians faster access to critical information. Prostate cancer remains a growing health concern in the Middle East, with officials citing an estimated 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
The introduction of the platform forms part of NRL’s wider strategy to strengthen oncology services and expand the use of digital pathology and AI-enabled diagnostics. Officials said the initiative supports the UAE’s broader objectives of advancing healthcare innovation, improving patient outcomes and building a more data-driven health system under UAEVision 2031.
Why does it matter?
AI-assisted diagnostics are increasingly being adopted to help healthcare professionals manage growing workloads, improve consistency in clinical assessments and accelerate access to diagnostic results. In pathology, AI tools can help identify patterns in medical images and support decision-making, particularly in areas where demand for specialist expertise is rising.
The deployment also reflects the UAE’s broader strategy of integrating AI into healthcare services as part of its digital transformation agenda. As healthcare systems seek to improve efficiency and patient outcomes, AI-enabled diagnostics are becoming an increasingly important component of modern medical practice.
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The UK government has launched an advisory AI Growth Lab to support responsible AI adoption in regulated industries, starting with the legal services sector.
The Ministry of Justice said the advisory sandbox is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of AI products and services by helping innovators navigate existing regulatory frameworks with greater confidence.
Legal services will be the first sector to participate, following strong industry demand for clearer and more coordinated regulatory guidance. The Lab will bring together the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and the Legal Services Board.
The participating regulators will work with innovators to identify cross-regulatory challenges, address unintended barriers in existing rules, and develop a clearer understanding of what effective AI oversight looks like in practice.
The initiative will support AI innovators, LawTech companies, legal service providers, and conveyancing firms as they test AI products within current regulatory frameworks. Applications are expected to open later this summer.
The government said the Lab aims to support responsible innovation, economic growth, and improved access to justice by enabling faster and more affordable legal services while maintaining quality.
Participation in the Lab will not amount to regulatory approval, endorsement, or authorisation, and existing legal and regulatory requirements will remain unchanged.
Why does it matter?
The Lab reflects the UK’s preference for structured, regulator-led experimentation rather than immediate new AI-specific legislation for every sector. Legal services are a useful test case because AI tools could improve access to justice and reduce costs, but they also raise questions around professional duties, data protection, accountability, confidentiality, and consumer protection. The initiative could help identify where existing rules create uncertainty for AI adoption without lowering regulatory standards.
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Dutch research organisation TNO has conducted an exploratory study examining how AI applications can be scaled across government organisations in the Netherlands. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations because AI offers opportunities for public sector services and operations.
The study supports the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy, which calls for a more proactive government role in the development and adoption of AI. One option under consideration is an AI scaling facility that would support the reuse and further development of successful AI applications, helping deploy them more quickly and across a wider range of organisations.
According to the study, scaling AI is not a linear or one-size-fits-all process. Depending on their goals, context, and partnerships, organisations may follow different approaches, including scaling within one organisation, replicating solutions across similar organisations, adapting them to new sectors or tailoring broad solutions to local needs.
TNO identifies seven approaches to AI scaling: scaling in, scaling out, scaling beyond, scaling together, scaling down, scaling up and scaling deep. The strategies cover internal adoption, cross-organisational reuse, sectoral adaptation, collaborative development, localisation, policy and standards work, and cultural or behavioural change inside organisations.
A related ‘Conversation starter’ has also been developed to help organisations assess AI scaling initiatives at the outset. The recommendations include treating scaling as a strategic decision, selecting an approach aligned with intended outcomes, addressing governance and organisational culture, reusing existing solutions where possible, investing in AI literacy and documentation, clarifying ownership and funding arrangements, and regularly assessing whether scaling remains desirable, feasible and legally appropriate.
Why does it matter?
Many governments are moving beyond AI experimentation and focusing on how successful projects can be deployed at scale. However, expanding AI use across public institutions often involves organisational, governance and cultural challenges that extend beyond technology itself.
The Dutch study highlights the need for structured approaches to AI adoption, emphasising reuse, collaboration and institutional capacity. Its findings could help governments accelerate AI deployment while maintaining accountability, effectiveness and compliance with legal requirements.
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Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed an experimental vaccine using AI, marking what they describe as the first human test of a vaccine component designed entirely by AI. The experimental approach aims to provide broad protection against entire families of viruses, including coronaviruses with pandemic potential.
The AI system analysed genetic data from multiple coronaviruses and designed a ‘super-antigen’ intended to help the immune system recognise and respond to a broad range of viral variants, including those that may emerge through future mutations. An initial trial involving 39 volunteers focused primarily on safety, while a larger follow-up study is planned to evaluate immune responses and effectiveness in greater detail.
Researchers say the approach could help vaccine development keep pace with rapidly evolving threats, including influenza, emerging COVID-19 variants and viruses with the potential to spread from animals to humans. The team is also exploring similar AI-designed vaccines for influenza, bird flu, and Ebola-like viral haemorrhagic fevers, where current protection options remain limited.
Researchers describe the findings as an early but significant step towards using AI to accelerate vaccine design and strengthen preparedness for future disease outbreaks. The study highlights growing expectations that AI may become a central tool in global pandemic prevention strategies.
Why does it matter?
Traditional vaccine development often focuses on responding to specific pathogens after they emerge. By contrast, AI-assisted design could help researchers develop vaccines that provide protection against entire families of viruses before outbreaks occur.
If successful, the approach could shorten development timelines, improve preparedness for future pandemics and support efforts to address rapidly evolving infectious diseases. The research also highlights the growing role of AI in scientific discovery and biomedical innovation.
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the AI Policy Toolkit, a practical guide intended to help governments translate AI principles into policy action. Released by the OECD under the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, the first version is designed as a non-prescriptive resource for policymakers working across the AI policy cycle.
Building on the OECD AI Principles, the toolkit is intended to help governments identify policy priorities, compare international approaches and adapt guidance to national circumstances. The platform incorporates AI-powered semantic search to help users identify relevant policy examples and practical approaches drawn from real-world experience.
The OECD developed the AI Policy Toolkit through co-creation with end-users across regions, including targeted interviews and workshops in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Policymakers, industry representatives and experts helped shape the platform around implementation challenges, including balancing innovation and regulation, addressing infrastructure gaps and supporting AI adoption in sectors such as agriculture, education and healthcare.
According to the OECD, the development process highlighted two key lessons: AI policy is heavily influenced by national context, institutional capacity and levels of digital maturity, while challenges such as advanced AI risks and linguistic and cultural representation often require international cooperation. Contributors included governments and organisations from Costa Rica, Italy, France, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the French Development Agency, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The OECD says the toolkit will continue to evolve through feedback, additional policy examples, and expanded coverage of emerging issues, including sector-specific guidance, infrastructure, and regulatory approaches. The OECD said the toolkit’s broader objective is to help governments move from high-level AI principles to practical implementation while managing risks and promoting trustworthy AI.
Why does it matter?
Many governments have adopted AI principles and strategies, but translating these commitments into practical policies remains a challenge. The OECD’s toolkit seeks to bridge that gap by providing policymakers with implementation guidance, real-world examples and policy options tailored to different national contexts.
The initiative also reflects growing recognition that effective AI governance requires both domestic policymaking capacity and international cooperation, particularly as countries confront shared challenges related to advanced AI systems, infrastructure needs and regulatory approaches.
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UNESCO and India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training have launched a national training programme to help teachers, educators, and education professionals identify, prevent, and respond to online violence affecting children.
The five-day programme is delivered live from 1 to 5 June 2026 in English, followed by a Hindi edition from 8 to 12 June. It is broadcast on NCERT’s official YouTube channel and the PM e-VIDYA platform, as well as on DTH TV Channels 6–12. Certification is available through the DIKSHA platform.
The initiative aims to strengthen teacher capacity as children spend more time on social media, gaming platforms, and online learning tools. UNESCO said India has more than one billion internet subscribers, with young people among the country’s most active digital users.
The programme covers cyberbullying, online grooming, image-based abuse, exploitation, exposure to harmful content, hate speech, and misinformation. It also addresses the impact of online violence on children’s mental health, well-being, learning outcomes, and participation in education.
Sessions bring together expertise from education, child protection, mental health, law enforcement, and digital governance. Contributors include experts from UNESCO, AIIMS, the Ministry of Home Affairs, NITI Aayog, Delhi Police, and Dublin City University.
UNESCO reported that cybercrime cases against children in India rose from 232 in 2018 to 1,823 in 2022, almost an eight-fold increase. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, reported cases increased by 32%.
The programme aligns with India’s National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023, both of which emphasise digital citizenship, learner safety, digital literacy, and ethical use of technology.
Why does it matter?
The training shows how child online safety is becoming part of education policy, not only cybercrime enforcement. By equipping teachers to recognise online harms and respond through referral pathways, UNESCO and NCERT are treating schools as part of the frontline response to cyberbullying, grooming, image-based abuse, misinformation, and other risks affecting children’s learning and well-being.
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The Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference is an annual gathering that brings together academics, policymakers, industry representatives, civil society, students, and EU institutions to discuss emerging digital policy challenges. This year’s theme was ‘Competing Visions, Shared Futures’, the 19th in the series, and it hosted approximately 150 panels over the span of 3 days in Brussels.
What is CPDP?
CPDP’s value lies in its multidisciplinary approach. With academics presenting their work or debating topical issues, as well as with industry and policy experts bringing their expertise to the table, the event creates a space for honest conversations among participants.
The conference is sponsored by organisations such as Google, TikTok, Apple, as well as the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and VBU. Google even presented its Banana AI model in a photo booth, allowing participants to modify photos they took in the booth.
Alongside panels, CPDP hosts an array of workshops, short films, artwork, radio programming, promotion booths, dedicated DPO, youth, finance and IT tracks, book launches, and pop-up exhibitions. The event always closes the day in style with an open bar and a party to chat and network at.
CPDP is not a typical conference with just panels, attendees, moderators, and lengthy speeches. The conference inspires creativity and gives the freedom to achieve it. This was proven by the diverse topics showcased in the event’s schedule over the three days.
From a fireside chat with the artist, Simon Denny, behind the conference’s art, who uses AI as a medium in some of his work, to typical discussions about the Digital Omnibus or tracking period apps, all the way to an exiled journalist talking about Russian internet censorship. There was something for everyone.
Image via Magnific
What was presented?
The breadth of topics discussed at CPDP offers insight into the issues currently shaping Europe’s digital policy agenda. There were approximately 150 panels in total, with data protection, AI, the Digital Omnibus and the topics of digital sovereignty receiving the most attention. Data protection received the most attention overall, as 33 panels were dedicated to the topic. This was followed by 26 panels on AI, 12 on the Digital Omnibus, 10 on digital sovereignty, and 7 on child-related protection.
The distribution of panels reflects the growing prominence of AI in digital policy discussions. However, data protection topics, including privacy and the GDPR, are still the frontrunners in terms of topic relevance. Newer and emerging topics reveal what is topical in the digital world.
Growing concerns over US tech reliance have intensified discussions about EU digital sovereignty. Alongside this, another heavily debated and sensitive topic is child protection in the online context and its generative AI implications, which raises questions about how to better protect children online.
Emerging topics at CPDP
Digital sovereignty is a challenging topic as it encompasses a lot and has yet to be defined, meaning that taking action can look different for a wide variety of actors. Several discussions framed digital sovereignty as a pathway towards greater digital independence and reduced reliance on external technology providers. In order to try to achieve digital sovereignty, public procurement should be steered away from non-EU actors and towards EU businesses to develop a European stack.
Yes, private partnerships are important, but public ones set the tone. Several participants argued that public procurement choices will play an important role in determining whether EU can strengthen domestic digital capabilities and reduce strategic dependencies. Digital sovereignty needs to come from all corners of the market and society; that is the challenge.
A very interesting panel on data protection and AI, the GDPR, and privacy occurred. In Academic Session I, Stephanie von Maltzan presented findings about her groundbreaking research on LLM unlearning. The larger the LLM, the more data points it will be trained on and the more complex its ‘web’ will be.
Removing data points is not a common practice, given how data points interact with each other, meaning that complexity overrides certain fundamental rights. For example, when data subjects invoke their right to erasure under Article 17 of the GDPR, they may request that certain data be deleted in an LLM, yet this request is difficult to carry out in practice.
The research highlights one of the emerging challenges at the intersection of AI governance and data protection. She presents a two tier model in which the actively deployed LLM is accompanied by a parallel ‘shadow’ model.
After receiving a valied erasure request, the ‘shadow model’ would undergo the necessary unlearning processes to remove the relevant data. In the second tier, in a scheduled update, the ‘shadow’ model, which had undergone unlearning, would replace the initial LLM, thereby upholding data subject requests.
Apart from these insightful exchanges of knowledge on AI, digital sovereignty and data protection, the conference offered practical workshops on how to brainstorm re-writing the proposed Article 88b of the Omnibus, data protection officer and cybersecurity crisis scenarios, as well as open conversations about how to protect children in online environments.
Remaining questions
The conference also highlighted several unresolved policy questions that continue to shape European digital governance debates.
Regarding the Digital Omnibus, would companies scale up overnight if we removed regulations?
Does digital sovereignty need/have a definition, or should it be left to the meaning of ‘digital independence’?
Open markets vs data protection, where is the balance?
Regarding digital sovereignty, which clouds should be used in the EU?
Should simplification mean using the once-used definition of personal data by the CJEU, or sticking to the definition relied on in law, cases, and practice?
In order to protect EU sovereignty, should parts of the stack be a public utility?
Why does it matter?
CPDP 2026 demonstrated that while privacy and data protection remain central pillars of European digital policy, debates around AI governance, digital sovereignty and online child protection are rapidly gaining prominence.
The discussions highlighted the growing challenge of balancing innovation, competitiveness, fundamental rights and strategic autonomy as Europe defines its digital future.
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The United Kingdom and France have launched a science and technology partnership focused on applying AI, advanced imaging, and data science to major healthcare challenges, including women’s health, infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance.
The UK-France Strategic Biomedical Alliance in Health and AI will bring together institutions including the University of Oxford, Université Paris Cité, Institut Pasteur, Diamond Light Source, and Synchrotron SOLEIL. The partnership aims to make it easier for British and French institutions to cooperate on biomedical research, share expertise, and develop joint projects and funding bids.
The initiative will support research into conditions such as endometriosis and childbirth-related complications, while also improving the detection and treatment of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, emerging viruses, and drug-resistant bacteria. Researchers will use AI, data science, and advanced imaging technologies to support earlier diagnoses, more personalised care, and improved preparedness for future health threats.
Alongside the biomedical partnership, the UK and France are strengthening cooperation in high-performance computing. Nearly £900,000 in UK government funding has been committed to a partnership between the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, which hosts Isambard-AI, and France’s national high-performance computing body GENCI.
The collaboration is expected to give researchers at both centres access to advanced computing resources and support AI research and scientific discovery across multiple fields.
The UK will also contribute £300,000, matched by €330,000 from the French government, to support early-career researchers living and working in both countries. The mobility funding is intended to strengthen research collaboration, including on Horizon Europe projects.
Imperial College London and the French National Centre for Scientific Research will also sign a separate agreement to collaborate on metabolism research, covering health challenges including heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Why does it matter?
The partnership shows how AI cooperation is increasingly being embedded in biomedical research, advanced imaging, and high-performance computing infrastructure. By linking health research with supercomputing capacity and researcher mobility, the UK and France are treating AI as part of a broader science diplomacy and innovation agenda, rather than only as a standalone technology policy issue.
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EuroDIG 2026 concluded with calls for stronger multistakeholder cooperation, greater digital inclusion, and wider support for multilingual internet access during the conference’s closing plenary hosted by EURid.
The final session combined celebratory reflections on the two-day event with broader policy messages on universal acceptance, digital accessibility, and cooperation across governments, the technical community, civil society, academia, and the private sector.
Opening the session, moderator Florence Ranson thanked participants for remaining until the end of what she described as a ‘fulfilling’ conference and said workshop outcomes and feedback would be shared in the coming weeks.
Co-moderator Sandra expressed surprise at the size of the audience at the wrap-up session and thanked the focal points, speakers, rapporteurs, youth participants, institutional partners, and sponsors for their contributions to the programme.
Regina, co-moderating the session, described EuroDIG 2026 as a demonstration of multistakeholder cooperation, noting that EURid hosts EuroDIG only once every ten years. She also highlighted the event’s coincidence with the 20th anniversary of the .eu domain.
Both moderators thanked the European Commission’s DG CONNECT team for supporting the event venue and programme development.
The closing session then shifted toward one of the conference’s recurring themes, the universal acceptance of multilingual domain names and email addresses.
Sarmad Hussain of ICANN said the internet must function in all languages and scripts, pointing to progress made since the Tunis Agenda of 2005 enabled development of internationalised domain names and multilingual email addresses. However, Hussain warned that many websites, platforms, and online services still fail to support non-Latin scripts and local-language identifiers despite existing technical standards.
According to Hussain, this creates a ‘universal acceptance’ challenge affecting accessibility and inclusion online. He called on developers, governments, academia, civil society, and private-sector organisations to update systems and applications so they accept all valid domain names and email addresses regardless of language or script. He also promoted the upcoming Universal Acceptance Day initiative aimed at raising awareness about the issue.
UNESCO representative Dr Xianhong Hu used the closing session to reinforce broader themes of multilingualism, inclusion, and digital cooperation. Speaking on behalf of Ambassador Salih Abduh, Hu highlighted UNESCO’s partnership with EuroDIG and linked the conference to the 25th anniversary of UNESCO’s Information for All Programme.
She noted that discussions during EuroDIG 2026 covered internet governance, universal acceptance, gender equality, youth participation, and intergenerational dialogue, reflecting UNESCO’s priorities around inclusive knowledge societies.
Hu also called for renewed cooperation among European governments, the technical community, academia, civil society, and businesses to bridge digital divides and support multilingual digital futures in the AI era.
The session concluded with a toast to partnership, an invitation for a group photo, and final thanks to participants and organisers.
The closing plenary reflected several broader themes that ran throughout EuroDIG 2026, including multistakeholder governance, digital inclusion, and concerns about unequal access to digital infrastructure and online participation.
The emphasis on universal acceptance also connected technical internet governance questions with wider debates on linguistic diversity and accessibility, highlighting ongoing gaps between existing technical capabilities and real-world adoption across online platforms and services.
EuroDIG 2026 took place on 26 and 27 May at the Charlemagne Building of the European Commission in Brussels under the theme ‘European Voices for the Future of the Internet – Celebrating 20 Years of .eu and the Beginning of a New Internet Governance Era’.
Digital Watch Observatory followed EuroDIG 2026 through a dedicated event page, featuring session information and reporting from Brussels.
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