Digital@UNGA 2026

This evening is co-hosted by the UNDP and ITU. So, please welcome onto the stage our co-hosts Doring Bogdan Martin and Alexander Dro. Good evening. Good. that um your majesty uh Matilda Queen of Queen of the Belgians and UN SDG uh advocate excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good evening here. Welcome to digital ata 2026. It's wonderful to be here Darin to be our host together with you. >> Well, likewise, Alexander. It's a great honor for me as well to be here uh in the presence of her majesty u especially at such a pivotal moment for the UN and for all of humanity with technologies like artificial intelligence moving faster than ever before. And before we begin, I actually have a a question for you that we were supposed to see on the screen. Did we see it on the screen? >> We're going to see it on the screen. >> It's coming. Suspense. >> Okay. I'm gonna ask you my question in a second. Heat. Back to my question, Alexander. >> Okay, back to my question. Of the words that we just saw on this screen, which one stayed with you? >> I would say all of them that I saw were words that touched me. But I would say the last one, which is together. Because as you said Darin, we are at a pivotal moment and none of the challenges that we see and I would also say a lot of the opportunities that we can reap can be tackled alone. There is no country today that can say I am strong enough, I'm prosperous enough to get all the benefits myself or to defend us to the negative side on our own. Not even one organization can do it. Not even one sector could do it. So that was my take. Darin, what would be the word that that stick with you? >> Future. Our shared digital future is coming at us faster than ever. Some would say it's actually here, but that doesn't mean that we should simply let it happen to us. Our digital future is something that we can and we must shape together. That is exactly why we are here to make sure that the future is not just something that happens but something that we can shape something that we are not the subject on but something that we are the verb on. >> This is the fourth year that the ITU and UNP have join forces to put digital cooperation front and center during this high level week. The result is a powerful platform and a global community of people who are not just talking about more innovative and inclusive digital futures. They're actually building it. >> Yeah. And so who is building this? Well, it's governments. It's businesses. It's United Nations. It's civil society. It's innovators. It's investors. It's young people. We all have a stake in this future and we all have a role in shaping it and this is exactly what digital ata is all about. This is a platform for action and you can see that in more than 100 affiliate events that are happening across New York and online this week. But our work goes way beyond this room. In the weeks leading up to tonight, we asked the world one simple question and that question was, "What are you doing to build a digital future for all of us?" Now, the answers came from all corners of the world. They were practical. They were personal. They were ambitious. And you will discover more throughout the evening on the monitors across this room what those examples were. Everyone brings a different perspective from a different stage of their digital journey but all of us share the conviction the conviction that each of us can help to build a digital future that works for everyone. So Alexander another question for you what are you doing to build a digital future? >> Uhhuh. Well, personally, I would want to see digital technology as a ladder and not as a wall the way it is too often seen by people today. And I've seen what happens when we get this right. It unleashes entrepreneurs. It helps small businesses to grow. It connects remote communities, for example, to lifesaving services. It gives women control over their finances and over their futures. And at UNP we are working with countries to level that playing field. That means moving beyond just the technology itself. It's all about building reliable digital public infrastructure. DPI as we say it's invisual networks that let small businesses sell online or a person have access to services securely and also and we talk a lot about it these days an inclusive and a safe AI ecosystem but it's also about skills and I would like to emphasize that it is about having the right guard rails in place so that technology serve the people and not the other way around. So, Darin, you have made everyone everywhere a central part of the work that you are doing at ITU. So, let me ask the question back to you. What are you doing to build a digital future? Well, for me it's about bringing the benefits of digital technologies to everyone everywhere by closing the gaps between those at the forefront of innovation and those being left behind and offline. I have seen firsthand how digital can be a lifeline for refugees and displaced communities, for families that may have lost everything, rebuilding their lives and their futures, one affordable connection at a time. At ITU, our job is to transform digital opportunity into reality by making meaningful connectivity universal through standards that support innovation and interoperability through skills as Alexander you just mentioned and capacity building and of course always with people at the center. >> Look that really is the spirit of tonight. We are not just here only to talk about the future. What are we here for? The ring. >> We are here to build it. First, we will explore innovation, new ideas and tech solutions, expanding the possibilities of responsible digital development >> and then inclusion because you cannot have a true digital future if certain groups of people are being left behind. And finally, collaboration, the key to turning our digital ambitions into action. >> So, as all of you are listening here tonight, ask yourself one question and it's a question that we have asked one to another and that is what am I doing to build a digital future? >> And a bonus question, are we doing enough? Well, that's the right question because the future is obviously not waiting somewhere ahead of us. >> It is already being built >> and it is being built by the word that we said at the start by all of us together. >> Welcome. Welcome to digital atanga. >> So you've seen that we really practiced this this choreography, right? Um, so after this introduction, it is now my honor and also Darin's honor to invite her majesty Matilda, Queen of the Belgians and United Nations SDG advocate to this digital ata stage to address a special address and we are truly honored your majesty to have you here. Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we are on a journey through one of the most defining transformations of our time. Artificial intelligence is creating new possibilities for innovation and development at unprecedented speed. Entire sectors are being transformed. Diseases are being diagnosed earlier. Farmers are able to anticipate droughts. Children in remote villages can access the same knowledge as those sitting in the most prestigious classrooms. Yet with this extraordinary promise comes a profound responsibility. We must make sure that the digital age becomes a story of inclusion and not exclusion. However powerful and useful these technologies become, our focus must remain on the people they are intended to help in their daily lives. Technology in itself should never be seen as the final goal. Its values depends on how it is used to respond to people's needs and create meaningful opportunities. Innovation should therefore be judged not by how sophisticated or advanced a technology is, but by the positive difference it makes for people and communities. And this is where I see a paradox. While digital transformation continues to accelerate at a pace that is sometimes difficult to grasp, access to the opportunities it creates remains far from equal. Some possess the most powerful tools while millions remain unable to fully benefit from them. The challenge before us is therefore not only technological. It is fundamentally a question of social equity. Growth cannot be considered progress if millions are excluded from it. If we fail to reduce the digital divides, we risk creating a world where opportunity is determined not by talent or ambition but by access to technology. That is not the legacy we wish to leave to future generations. Ladies and gentlemen, as we work to ensure that no one is left behind, we must also ensure that technologies remain firmly anchored in human rights and fundamental values. Algorithm may process information but only people can create meaning. Technology can optimize decisions but only humans should exercise judgment. Technology can imitate intelligence but it cannot replace empathy, dignity or solidarity. This is why human center technology is not merely a choice. It is a moral imperative. Keeping keeping people at the center of technological change demands more than good intentions. It requires empowering individuals and especially young people to navigate digital spaces safely and to engage confidently and critically with the technologies shaping their lives. Education has a central role to play in this regard. Digital literacy is no longer merely a technical skill. It is a life skill. Lastly, we must continue to ask ourselves how technology affects our well-being, our mental health, and our relationships. Social media deserves special attention in this respect. Ladies and gentlemen, the question, what are we doing to build a digital future? is a simple question yet a profound one because building a better digital future is not only the responsibility of governments, innovators or institutions. It is especially shaped by countless individual actions that help others learn, connect, participate and flourish. For my part, I believe that building a digital future means ensuring that progress remains centered on people. It means supporting a future in which innovation serves inclusion. And it means building a digital future in in which young and old are empowered rather than overwhelmed by change so that no one is left behind. Thank you. Thank you your majesty. Thank you Dorene. Thank you Alexander. This evening we are going to take you on three journeys into innovation, inclusion and the future. Each journey has a captain who has expertise in each of those thematic areas. And before I start looking at the innovation journey, I will pause for a moment for some suitable video mood music to happen on stage. I do not know what will happen, but let's see if we can have that video behind me to set the mood for innovation. Our captain for our innovation journey is her excellency Josephine Teio, Minister for Digital Development and Information in Singapore. Please come to the stage. You're welcome. Distinguished colleagues and friends, good evening and thank you for inviting Singapore to share our views on digital inclusion, digital development and in particular AI. There is of course tremendous excitement about what AI can do. But in Singapore, we try to focus on a slightly different question. Not simply how capable is the technology but what difference does it make to people. We have been fortunate. We are not starting from scratch. Over many years Singapore has invested in digital connectivity, digital identity, cloud infrastructure, data and digital capabilities within government. For us, infrastructure is less of an immediate constraint. Our challenge is how to make good use of the foundations and strengthen them. Our first challenge is therefore to deploy AI for impact including within the government. We see two opportunities in the public service. Helping our officers work better and serving our citizens better. Almost 70% of public officers use AI tools regularly. They were encouraged to and they do so for tasks such as analyzing information and preparing drafts. We are now exploring the use of AI agents that could help us redesign entire workflows while keeping officers accountable for important decisions. AI is also helping us serve our citizens better. We use machine learning to route feedback so that a broken swing of faulty street lamps gets to the right agency more quickly. At our borders, AI helps identify anomalies in millions of cargo shipments. To combat scams, AI helps us detect signs of fishing and impersonation. These examples cut across multiple agencies and functions. But the principle is the same. The real measure of AI innovation is not how impressive the model is. It is whether it improves people's lives. We are also very mindful that over time people will only rely on AI if they trust it. AI can be used for many types of harms. For example, scams can become more convincing and personalized. Cyber attacks are easier to execute. Building trust means managing these risks and putting the right safeguards in place so that AI can be adopted with confidence. From that perspective, trust does not constrain innovation. In fact, trust allows innovation to scale. There is a third dimension that matters and that is how do we broaden participation. This is linked to the question of access. Southeast Asia has extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity. Yet many AI models have weak understanding of our languages, accents and cultural contexts. So we built Sea Lion. It stands for Southeast Asian languages in one network as well as another model that is multimodal in nature. These are open models designed around Southeast Asian languages and cultures, including the multilingual speech and code switching that come very naturally to us. AI Singapore is a research institute that is also working with partners like the Gates Foundation, Google and the UNDP on project atlas to build AI ready data sets for under reppresented languages across the globe. For us, this is how AI inclusion can be meaningfully expanded. Countries should not all have to build frontier models. Indeed, most of us will not have the capacity to do so. But we should be supported to adapt AI to our own languages, cultures, and needs. That's what we believe. We also want to share what Singapore has learned through the digital pillar of the forum of small states, a community of 108 small countries. Singapore shares practical experiences, open-source digital tools, and ways to build digital capabilities. We've also created the Singapore digital gateway where partners can access our digital toolkits and resources and find capacity building opportunities through initiatives such as the Singapore Cooperation Program. We also work with other partners such as the World Bank to deliver such opportunities. To summarize, there are three key learnings from our AI journey thus far. First, deploy for impact, including within government. Second, build trust for sustained use. And thirdly, broaden participation as much as we can to as many communities as we can reach. Ultimately, the success of AI should not be measured by how powerful our machines become. It should be measured by how many people are empowered by them. On this note, I want to thank you once again for inviting us. Have a good discussion. Thank you. The director general of UNESCO is Halid Elani. He is not here. It is the moment for the assistant director general to have their moment in the sunlight. I want you to applaud her more than you would applaud the director general of UNESCO. Just make it loud because she is filling in. But you will forget that when she comes on the stage to share the digital innovation story about how do we translate our rapid technology into having impact down on the ground particularly for UNESCO issues that you care so deeply about. Thank you for joining us Maria Gabrielle. Thank you your excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen, well first of all warm regards and thank you to ITV UNDP on behalf of the director general of UNESCO Professor Khlet Elinani. He was very keen to be here but another engagement did this impossible but that's how you have me. So thank you very much for your warm welcome. Now, as your question rightly highlights, the task before us is to ensure that advances in artificial intelligence translate into tangible and inclusive progress for people everywhere. And achieving this requires closing the agency divide. So all countries have the knowledge, capacities and resources not only to access innovation but also to shape it, govern it and retain control over its development. UNESCO is uniquely placed to support this effort. Bringing together normative frameworks, technical expertise, capacity building, extensive field networks, international cooperation and the human- centered vision of technological transformation. You all know that. But a key milestone was reached in 2021 when all UNESCO member states adopted the recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence, the first global normative framework on AI. But the real test of AI governance, you said it minister, on a different angle, but I can only confirm the real test of AI governance is not what is agreed in conference rooms. It is whether countries have the capacity to implement these principles in practice, giving people and institutions the knowledge, tools and expertise they need. Because ultimately success will be measured by whether people learn better, scientific cooperation expands, creators thrive, and citizens can trust the information they receive. And to this end, we mobilize UNESCO's global network of chairs, centers, and experts. And we work with more than 80 countries to develop their AI policies while also training thousands of teachers, students, public officials, and judicial professionals. Of course, closing technological gaps cannot be achieved by any single institution alone. And the strength of the UN lies in the complimentarity of our mandates and in our shared commitment to a rightsbased digital future reflected in the world summit on the information society the global digital compact the more recently global dialogue on AI governance. Thank you again Dorin and ITU for the excellent cooperation. So this same spirit underpins the UN80 strategic foresight hub and beyond the UN system of course the newly launched AI for good global commission. I finish UNESCO remains committed to contributing alongside all stakeholders to building an AI ecosystem that is ethical, inclusive, equitable and sustainable. and of course above all to turn this shared vision into reality. Thank you. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could use AI not just to predict predict diseases but also to stop them from happening for the prevention. We are going to hear from Dr. Anne Ed who is the head of the Novatas Foundation. He's going to tell us a little bit more about some of the innovation that would really impress us in this forum and then outside in the world as well. Dr. Ant Eds, you're welcome. Thank you so much, your excellencies, colleagues. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. So, imagine you're a minister of health and you have to address a lot of challenges today. There's the rapid urbanization that creates a lot of um growing inequities. You have the constant threat of new emerging diseases and then on top of that a rapidly rising aging population which puts an enormous burden with chronic diseases on your health system. But at the same time you have something that all other health ministers are quite jealous of. You have a great digital infrastructure and good data. But still with all that data you feel your health system is acting quite reactively and you think by yourself what if these data would not only show me what has happened yesterday but could also predict what will happen next. So that's where our experience at the Novartis Foundation comes in and where we work with a few datari cities of which New York was one and we brought together the data from a health system with all data from health influencing sectors and we looked at what truly drives your health. What it turns out that 80% of your health is determined by the place where you live much more than the than your medicines or your healthcare. And that is in fact good news because it's all about your housing situation, the security in your neighborhood, the green space, the air you breathe. It's good because we can act on it now. And that is where we bring in two different experiences. On the one hand, we work with city authorities around the world to build health intelligence. We combine that data insights because health systems are quite data rich as the minister saw. But they are very often insights poor. So we build the data insights with AI and then combine it with understanding of the community of the lived experiences. Why is the number one risk factor or predictor of cardiovascular disease in New York a long commute time? We know from the uh knowledge from the communities it's all about your time stress. people who need to run three jobs during the day and have to still find time to cook and get food on the table. That's what creates a lot of risk for cardiovascular disease. There's a lot of these examples, but that health intelligence then combined with the technology. You use simulation to forecast what the impact of a certain intervention in your population will be or you use predictors like we can do with these different determinants can predict who is most at risk of a of a heart attack or a stroke. So that brings us quite uh the full circle. It's really revolutionary because now the minister can predict what is going to happen next and can prevent it. So his system can become less reactive, more proactive, predictive and ultimately preventive. And that's what we do in our work in cardio for cities with city authorities around the world. We work together hand in hand to build road maps that address all of these elements and predict disease so that we can prevent it. But there is a room for a lot more more partners. All of these cities are demonstrating what can happen when you work together with the partners of health authorities, health leaders, uh, community organizations, academics, private sector partners from different disciplines can really show and demonstrate what happens when you connect prediction and action. And there's a lot of room for more of us. So, I don't know about you, but this makes me really excited and optimistic. And we need you. So the question is will you join us? Thank you. Dr. Anne, please come back. >> I know you got two rings of the bell, but I need to do this. We had a little conversation earlier. Yes. >> And part of it was about being tired, right? You were like, I'm so tired. And then you just did the most extraordinary high energy passionate presentation. What is it that helps you do that? Please stand there and tell us that helped me do this is my passion about the work we do and the global movement we create to eliminate heart attacks in the next generation. So again, please join us. Thank you, Dr. An. I'm not going to tell you where we had that conversation, where that conversation was held, where all the best conversations are. We move on. I have two microphones. I'm so greedy. We move on with our innovative stories. And this one takes us to Sirill Leone and a program that you may be well aware of. It's called feed salone which is about agriculture uh getting rid of hunger. Agriculture is looked at in a digital way. Improving harvests is use digitization. But if you do that and you accelerate the progress, how do you put safeguards in place? That is something that we're going to be discussing with her excellency Selma Monorma Bar. Please the microphone is yours. Please come to the stage. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Um, thank you for that um, warm invite and thank you um, to UNDP and it for inviting me. I think this is my third digital ata. I'm starting to feel like part of the furniture but it's amazing. Um I prioritize being here every time because I think this is where we get to opportunity to share um what we're doing, opportunity to learn from what others are doing and I think we can discuss and agree and highlight the challenges and opportunities of our digital shared digital future. So it's always amazing um um to be here and especially as a government that has really prioritized and identified technology as critical to us to able to achieve our national development um agenda. And we understand that it can enable us to accelerate but in some instances even leaprog um um above what we're doing. And that is why technology is identified as one of the government's big five game changers in our national development plan because we it was important to ensure that this is um part of the agenda and not just seen as sometimes I think technology gets to be seen as a side or an afterthought but I think it's important to identify that um it is um um critical um towards that and because we understand that technology and I think most of the speakers have spoken about technology is not just techn technology for technology sake, right? Um it's about how do we ensure somebody mentioned through technology and digitization, we're improving our health care system, we're improving our farming system, we're improving our education system. And one of the systems I'm here to talk about is farming and feed salon. Feed salon is the government's commitment to ensure to ensuring that we can achieve food security. And one of the most essential areas is rice is one of our biggest consumptions in terms of food. But up to very recently a large portion of the rice that we consume was imported. So the government has made a commitment that by 2028 we will achieve 100% rice efficiency and we're well on our way towards that. And what is driving that improvement is technology and digitalization. Understanding that farming today cannot be what farming was. We understand that we can use technology to ensure that farmers um can improve their yield to ensure that they have access to credible information to ensure that they can expand um their market. So the digital foundations that we're building are ensuring that we're driving our feed um um salon um initiative towards ensuring that we're geo mapping our farming bases. So ensuring that we're um the farmers have access to connectivity um and ensuring that we're building the skills and capacities that they need as well as we're giving them the digital services that would um um support the work that they do and and one of the most critical is our national farmer registry that we're building. We're ensuring it's interoperable, it's usable, and it can connect to so many other critical um systems that we have because we know with a credible system, this is important um to be able to ensure we know where the farmers are, know who they are, and know that we can ensure they have access um um to finance. And just before the bell goes, one of our critical areas towards that to ensuring that is ensuring that as a country, we're an open-source first country. We're proud co-founding members of the digital public goods alliance because we believe that we should not have to build everything. We can leverage on what's already been done as was mentioned by the minister um in Singapore. We believe that we can reuse. We believe that um we should also be able to build local capacity. That's why actually at this angleon together with UNICEF we'll be launching the first um opensource first policy because we're um and um critical to ensure that this is part of our procurement pipeline to ensure that open source is seen as um sometimes people see it as they think open source means free means not good but as a country we want to demonstrate how open source can accelerate our digital transformation initiatives. I thank you for not ringing the bell. I'll end there. But again, thank you um um for inviting us. We're happy to for to share and happy to hear more. Thank you. >> Congratulations. So if we are having and planning a future that requires advanced technology, advanced science, do we have the infrastructure in place to do that? I want you to meet Professor Hoda Al-Hazami. She is the associate vice president. Um, professor, you can stand up because you've got a lot of uh credits to your name and it will take me a while to get through them. uh NYU Abu Dhabi international advisor on advanced science and future economy member of the ITU academic advisory body on emerging technologies and future industries professor you're welcome and that you you said to me earlier I'm not going to go too sciency right yeah I mean like I didn't know if we should get into the nitty gritty detail or just keep it, you know, a bit informal. I'd like to start by thanking you, Madame Secretary, thanking your excellencies, our amazing audience today in the room, ladies and gentlemen, and Fei for keeping the energy of the room uh up and running. I think we will start today with a few definitions or redefinitions. I think today what we define as infrastructure is quite changing massively. Look at it today in the UN General Assembly with 193 nations around the world thinking differently of shared future. A shared future today as Dorene told us earlier is not just about how can we reach that shared future together but rather how can we connect, share and create that shared future together. And for that we need a bit of a different formula. In the past, we used to define an infrastructure by how can we connect the world to economic value. And when we say connect the world to economic value, we meant maybe ports, moving goods, maybe communication infrastructure, moving information and data, maybe roads, maybe moving people. But that definition is not cutting it anymore. And it's not enough anymore in such a world where we see a magnitude of a fragmentation happening left, right, and center. We want to redefine actually transformative infrastructures. And when I say transformative infrastructure, I need I want you to just replay back the past three centuries and figure out what happened. Look how many years took steam engine to reach the hands of a normal low economy infrastructure. 80 years, 40 years for electricity, 20 years for internet, six months for fundamental artificial intelligence. And the magnitude magnitude of that transformation did not happen overnight. We always cultivate on the potential possibilities of building actually discoveries that come out of science that come out of the transform transformative kind of corridors of universities, R&Ds, industries in order to build a better future. But is that enough? Can we redefine something different? Can we redefine a breakthrough today? I think we should. breakthrough is not anymore about us figuring out a scientific discovery and turning that a scientific discovery into possibility. It's how much of that possibility is actually being there in the hands of the public to redefine human progress to redefine today what we create around the human progress and value. If we looked around the room, the global room that we have today, 4,358 research scientists ex out of 1 million exist in North America and the United States while in Europe as well while in subsahara we have around 88 per 1 million. So while we are building collectively the world, we need to start by asking ourselves are we actually building collectively the world together. Are we sharing our scientific resources to make sure that we leave no nation behind? When we say we leave nobody behind, we mean in that we leave no nation behind. No nation today should be a consumer of that infrastructure. nations should be as well co-articipant, co-creators, producers of that infrastructure in order for us to reach that kind of collected collective prosperity we're talking about. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you, Professor As we continue our innovation journey, I want to bring on two passengers, James Manika and Lily Cam, who are not just going to talk about innovation, they're going to show impact and what action actually looks like. James Manik is president of the research labs technology and society at Google AI for good global commissioner and Lily Cam is the programs director of I am Angel Foundation. James and Lily please come to the stage. >> James, welcome. Was there something that you wanted to say? >> Uh, yeah. I was going to highlight a few things. I've got a couple of announcements to make as well. >> Okay, great. And we've got two microphones. So, one can be for Lily >> and one can be for you. Perfect. >> Well, first of all, thank you for the invitation, distinguished guests, your excellencies. It's a pleasure to be here again. Uh, at Google, we have a shared commitment with many of you to make sure that digital technology is inclusive and is available to everybody. This is very consistent with our founding mission which is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. I wanted to highlight at least our what our approach has been to AI which is to this idea. We've been talking about this for many years about being bold and responsible together. And for us, bold means doing the ambitious things that we think are possible for society with this technology, whether it's in health, in education, in scientific discovery, and more. And then responsible, making sure we're taking seriously the complexities and risks and issues that come with this technology, which we know are quite real. And then the together part means we should all be working on all of this together. No one entity should decide and make choices about these things. So when I stand here uh I'm representing much of this ambition. We we actually reached two important milestones that I think are worth highlighting in this uh digital inclusion discussion. One is last week uh we got to 300 languages uh that we're now able to work with digitally on our way to our moonshot to get to a thousand languages. So we're quite proud of that. Second, when it comes to discovery, uh, our Nobel Prizewinning breakthrough, AlphaFold, is now openly accessible to now four million researchers in 190 countries, opening up possibilities for others to take advantage of this. And as I stand here today, uh, with with Lily, uh, I'm representing a partnership we announced here uh, a year ago. And here I want to give uh, a report on three milestones. The first thing is after a year of that partnership together with Will and Willam's foundation and Lily and also with it youu and Dorene we've now reached uh this is our our initiative to bring AI and robotic training and skills to youth around the world. We've now reached five countries, 500 teachers, uh, at least 300 plus schools, four we've distributed 450 robotics, infrastructure and kits, and we've had close to 2,000 innovators participate in the boot camps and the challenges we've done. Now, we're moving on to phase two. So, we're quite proud of that. Second highlight is, and this is a new announcement that we're making here today in partnership with the ITU, we're announcing a 100,000 scholarships uh for AI skills training and these are going to be available in 80 countries and and these are going to be country-led training in all these different countries to bring uh AI skills uh to learners uh in uh 100,000 scholarships for that. So, we're very proud of that. And then finally before I hand over Thank you. And finally before I hand over to Lily, last week you may have heard the UN Secretary General announce uh UN data commons. uh this is an infrastructure effort where we're working with 26 of the UN's agency to bring and harmonize UN statistical data in health in education in uh in in transportation in infrastructure and demography so that AI tools can now be be available to use for the UN as it does its work in all these countries. We're very proud of this. Uh so those are three announcements that I should hand over to Lily. >> Thank you so much James. Um it's an honor to be here tonight and on behalf of my boss will am founder of the I am Angel Foundation and also ambassador to the UN ITU and AI skills coalition. We're incredibly proud to be part of this mission. Uh we um you know to bring robotics programs and AI programs to students all over the world. Uh I also want to take a moment to thank James and his team at Google because they've been incredible partners also in the work that we do back home in Los Angeles where uh Will was born and raised. We have a groundbreaking program in LA to bring robotics teams to over 100 schools in the LA Unified School District which is the second largest school district in the US. So our program is the largest of its kind and we truly believe in this work to bring highquality STEM and robotics programs to students no matter what their economic background is. So we're really excited to be a part of this collaboration. We're really excited uh for the future of it and hopefully working together we can bring robotics programs to every school in the world. Thank you, Lily. Thank you, James. As we bring six chairs on stage so subtly that no one will even notice that six chairs have come on stage very subtly, I want to just check to see if anybody in the room is a fan of K-pop. Oh, okay. One or two. Uh my mission is to convert you by the end of this program. Trust me, I can be very persuasive but not as persuasive as a big ocean who will be coming to perform for us. Not just for any reason, but because they also have technology in the way that they work and they perform. And some of the members cannot hear, but they absolutely can sing. That is the teaser for you to stay for a little bit longer so we can have a K-pop rave and find out how digital and technology all connects together. But for now, as I lean in for the last chair, I want to bring on our partners to connect. Wim writer, chief external corporate affairs officer of Vodafone Group. David Zapolski, chief global affairs and legal officer at Amazon. Summer Chen, chief international ecosystem representative at ZTE. I'm in America, so I should say ZTE. Erica Moret, director of the UN and international organizations at Microsoft. And Juliana Almeida, special advisor to the president, Interamerican Development Bank. Good to see all of you. Let me see how many microphones do I have. Can I put one here? Thank you. And one here. Very good. And I miscounted the chairs. One, two, three, four, five. No, I did ask for another one. I'll stand because you are important. My apologies. >> I have one for you. >> Oh, thank you. >> Very good. That was so subtle. That was no one noticed any of the scenery moving the microphones coming to the stage. Thank you. Willing suspension of disbelief. That is what it is called. All right. What are you doing for a digital future for us all? You're all partners to connect. You care about connecting the world, inclusivity, and also accessibility as well. So let me start with wim wim. How how how do your friends say it? >> Hello. Yes, >> it works. >> All right. Uh let me answer the question with three questions. Where? What? How? Where? For us the big opportunity frankly is Africa. It has leapro been the mobile revolution. It's now mobile revolution is 8% of GDP in Africa. 240 billion generated from that 13 million jobs. It's been an an amazing revolution. And yes, we talk a lot about unconnecting the unconnected, which is a big issue. But I just want to call out that Africa has made it its own revolution with its own innovation, its own entrepreneurship. That we see is the continent where we need to win it. 1/4 of all workers will be in Africa by 2050. If we screw up Africa's digital journey, it will impact all of us. So, we're laser focused on that. What and I think the minister referred to that which I thought was great. Take agriculture as an example. We build digital platforms in Africa by Africans and sell it to the world. Our digital farming platform that we built in Vodiccom is now being sold to the US, Australia, Eastern Europe and a number of other countries. And what it does is transforms the livelihoods of the people that are involved in the activities. We see the same thing in cold chain management with med medicines. I was very happy that was raised and a number of other areas. So for us it's about how do you leverage the connectivity and the platforms you build on top and then build AI into it. That's how you unlock the opportunities and make it truly inclusive. The final question is how. So how are we doing this from our point of view? You're going to have to we we say a lot to get together and collaborate but it's actually genuinely true. You need the connectivity, you need the devices, you need the skills, you need the digital platforms and then you need to embed AI into it. That's the only way that you get to go to market. I just want to stress this is a fantastic business case. We're making more money in Africa than we are in Europe. There is no reason why we wouldn't invest more in Africa. We just need more people to invest with us. Pass the microphone to your right, please. >> Good afternoon, good evening. >> David, if you looking at what Amazon is doing for a digital future for us all, what's different from last year to this year? What's new? Well, Amazon is building a digital future that includes everyone, especially in communities where digital development has been out of reach for too long. And we're doing this with Amazon LEO, our low Earth orbit satellite network. Its mission is simple. Deliver fast, affordable, reliable connectivity to unserved and underserved communities. Unlike fiber or terrestrial wireless, LEO satellites can reach remote islands, mountainous terrain, and rural villages everywhere with a clear view of the sky without the prohibitive cost of fiber. It also supports real-time applications long unavailable to many communities. Things like tele medicine, distance learning, and cloud computing, the tools essential for participation in today's digital economy. But we can't build this future alone. We plan to partner with incumbent uh operators to extend their networks to places otherwise prohibitively difficult to reach. Our recent commitment with Herotel, South Africa's biggest uh fixed internet provider will provide connectivity to millions living on farms in small towns in long underserved rural communities. Partnerships like this strengthen local digital ecosystems, giving operators new tools to widen coverage and build local capacity so the benefits take root in country. But this is only part of the recipe. For Amazon Leo to succeed, we need to rely on forward-thinking policy and regulatory frameworks that welcome investment, innovation, efficiency, and competition. And this includes concepts like streamline licensing, and modernized rules for spectrum sharing. Governments and institutions like the ITU are central to getting this right, which is why Amazon welcomes the chance to engage here. Ultimately, it's about outcomes, not rules. students in class, clinics reaching specialists, small businesses seek selling beyond their shores. That's how we build a digital future. Connect the unconnected and let opportunity flow. Thank you. >> Thank you, David. Juliana, are you okay? >> I'm okay. >> You're at the end of the line, Juliana. And I'm not an IT company, by the way. Uh, you know that by the time we get to you, your ideas have to be brilliant because you've had five people ahead of you or four people ahead of you. Realize that, Juliana. >> That's right. >> Okay, Summer, good to have you creating a digital future for all. What are you doing in your organization? >> Thank you, Fei. Um, for ZT, I I just first tell you a story. Uh two years ago, most of most of the rural Liberia had never made a voice core and uh working with Orange Liberia, we have built 128 solar power base station in only three months. So with uh that area with no road and no grid power and we give this opportunity for the farmers, students, marts and the teachers they got the first phone or signal in their lives. That's was the innovation what we are do building at ZT and ZT sync connectivity can thinking by itself is a native AI and with this kind of solution the people can enjoy the life by our ICT infrastructures our efforts um since become a P2C champion ZT we will put numbers behind our promise promise um we put more than $400 million US dollar every year in ICT infrastructure for the least uh communication communities and over 40,000 digital scare training course for these areas. So all these connectivities efforts will guarantee a chance for the lives for these people and this year we go further and we think AI with our partnership will just build a new device. So we are making the commitment to more than $450 million US next three years. So this will will uh offers a open AI ecosystems called local invate um invaders working with us to provide solutions not just um receive them and we we think digital world is means inclusive everyone in it not just receive it. So um digital words intelligence includes everyone in this design not just output. So we are um invitation everyone in this room together working together we are building the beautiful future together. Thank you Fei. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Please pass the mic to your right. >> Hello Erica. >> Hi Fei. >> It's good to have you here. >> Thank you. >> How are you going to surprise us, shock us, delight us? Well, first I have to apologize that I am not actually Vicky Robinson who is down here and she sends her apologies. So poor man's replacement, but thank you for having me all the same and Secretary General, your excellency is it's a pleasure to be here. So Microsoft is helping to build a digital future by turning connectivity into meaningful participation. As a partner to connect Champion and a very proud uh founding member, we're supporting universal meaningful connectivity and digital inclusion. We're using research to focus action where it matters most. Our AI diffusion research shows that adoption moves fastest where reliable electricity that we've been hearing about already this evening. Internet connectivity and digital skills are in place and stalls when these foundations remain limited. We're expanding connectivity at scale through our connectivity partnerships. Mic Microsoft has helped extend coverage to nearly 300 million people globally, including more than 124 million people in Africa. We're working across the full digital inclusion continuum. This means extending connectivity to create access. Supporting reliable energy so that access is actually usable. Building digital and AI skills so people can use, adapt and create locally relevant solutions. Strengthening trust through cyber security, accessibility, local language technology and meaningful control. partnering to turn adoption into real world impact for small businesses, public services, health, education, and economic opportunity. We're connecting policy, capital, and practical delivery. We build on commitments such as partner to connect and work with governments, development institutions, local operators, and communities across the global south. We act as a catalyst, convenor and co-investor. Our role is to help partners move from connectivity to capacity and from capacity to trust and from trust to meaningful AI adoption. So in closing, that's what Microsoft is um doing to build digital future, helping to ensure AI expands opportunity rather than deepening existing divides. Thank you, >> Erica. I I just stood on your light applause, but it's going to get louder, don't worry. Um, what's the best part of your job? That's I would say the best part of the job I live in Geneva and in Switzerland it's really um a a place where we have all the different countries in the world coming together and this really incredible work going on. So, I would say all of you who are here in New York, don't forget Geneva. Um there's so much important work being done there um in areas including closing the digital divide, women and girls and global south. >> Thank you, Erica. The location is the best part of your job. We read between the lines there. All right. You don't get to do over. Uh Juliana, you have been waiting so long that we know you're going to come with a powerful this is how we are changing or forwarding this digital divide that we have and how do we have a digital future for all of us together and you are from the Interamerican Development Bank special advisor. Please share your share your progress with us. Thank you so much for being here for the invitation and to share a little bit of uh what the what the IDB is doing. We are not an IT company like my previous uh colleagues but uh we all know that developing countries must accelerate rate digital transformation in order to risk to reduce the risk of having a wider opportunity gap and the IDB we are focusing on three men of act three action lines. The first one is to build digital governance where we are helping primarily governments with uh the modernization of institutions and policy for data sharing transparency. We have a couple of initiatives in particular regional platform like the tech lab, the GF tech connect that is helping government actually to connect with startups to modernize public service and accelerate digital transformation adapted to the local context and I would like to emphasize that which is very important. Uh the second aspect is actually to connect with the digital skills to create that institutional capacity on the ground to accelerate the adoption uh both at the public and the private workplace and also to attract and retain talent on the ground at the at the Latin American Caribbean where we have most of our focus. And the third line of action is about the data expansion of data and digital infrastructure. And with that we invest in different kind of infrastructure that range especially in in underserved areas but primarily in broadband networks fiber 4G 5G etc. And of course like all the institutions that are passing through all this craziness of AI, we are also internally trying to adapt and catch up. that's the word trying to catch up with all these like fast movement towards AI everything in order to make our work more efficient transparent and in particular to be able to to account towards our governance at the I at the end we believe that to accelerate techno techn innovation and adoption and turn digital transformation and responsible AI into inclusive growth. We also need to focus on these three line of actions. One, strengthening institutions, government, private sector. Second, equipping people and expanding access through digital infrastructure. Thank you. >> Thank you, Summer. Do you still have the microphone? >> Oh, here. >> Oh. Oh, no. David's got it. David, can you pass it to your left? Wim, you're making notes. what is going on? >> Yeah, these are all partners and we're happy to collaborate with them on everything. So I take note we work with them on satellites, we work with digital skills. We are a partner with Microsoft to digitizememes. So these are all partners and it's really good to see them. >> It's really good to see you collaborating or espionaging. I'm not sure which it is, but it's lovely. Thank you so much. It is not easy to sit on a stage being stared at by people and you did it perfectly. partners to connect and that is why you're our partners. Please take your seats. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. This is why you're CEO. Thank you very much. So, while we take the chairs off the stage, we've been talking about digital. We've been talking about our digital future, digital access for all. And what we wanted to do is also bring you people who use digital every day. And that's young people and what they're concerned about and their interests. Let's take a look at our young digital voices. I built a digital platform where survivors of gender based violence are able to access timely care. >> I use the AI to turn students new words and mistakes into instant study materials. >> Digital literacy lessons I help to create every week. >> I build a part of an app where people can pay, get learns when they need it. I co-ounded your market to help young people access products and opportunities through technology. >> What are you doing to be yours? >> Digital at ANGA. And now, good evening everybody. Welcome to the digital ata awards. I know there's a lot going on tonight, but I want to check that you are in award mode. Uh, please can you uh applaud like you mean it and you're excited for the winner. Please applaud as if you are the winner. I like that one. Please applaud if the winner could get a week in Geneva. Uh I think that would be a prize. I'm not sure. Okay. So we are going to start digital at anger awards. We have four categories. Digital frontiers, digital inclusion, digital government and digital pioneers. Each category will have its own presenter and they will come to the stage and make the presentation. They will have a gold envelope. They will announce the winner. Uh Dorene and the assistant uh secretary general of UNDP will come up and they will have a certificate. There will be an award. We will go wild. The uh winner will do a very short thank you very much. I had no idea I was the winner. They will get off stage and then we will continue. All right, everybody got that down? Perfect. All right, we've had over 1,500 submissions from 146 countries. It truly is an amazing feat if you're on stage here in a little while saying thank you for the award. For our first presenter, Lady Mariam is the founder of women of AI network and I am the code. Welcome to the stage. You have your gold envelope in hand. Let the prize giving commence. Wow, the avatars are really cool. I don't know if you have noticed. Yeah, that's fantastic. They got it right. to view my makeup in purple and everything. Wow, that's really really amazing. Congratulation to everyone. So this is a very very important moment. Honorable guest Dorin, thank you everyone. Really leaders, ladies and gentlemen, I always like when Fei is presenting because she makes it very dramatic. One of the thing that is really critical before I announce the winner is that the future is not something we wait for. The future is something we build. And tonight I'm standing here in a room filled with people who are building. Over the last 11 years I've been building because I know in three years in 2030 we will show the evidence of what we've been building. Few months ago, I had the extraordinary honor in receiving an award from with the whisy's community here. Tonight, I want to return the favor and to honor another group because that's what we do. When we show evidence and work, we receive awards. We are honored. Really, really critical in our work. It shows us that we are doing something good. We're building. If you haven't met me before, my name is Lady Mariam Jam. I am the founder of I am the code and I've just this week we're going to launch the women in AI network. It's really critical that we do that. At I am the core, we are building the digital future from digital frontier. And when I say the digital frontier, I just don't mean the Silicon Valley. I mean Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. I've been traveling in 190 countries over the last 15 years and I've seen what digital frontier can do. From the young women and girls growing up in refugee camps in Africa, fabulous of Brazil, everywhere, young people are building something because they want an answer and we want to give them that answer. They know what to do. I mean a girl in a remote village or a tough a young girl growing up in a tough community. I work in the hardest places of the world really hard but young women are building. They are now waiting for us. Many people are building and that's why this amazing opportunity here to reward some people is critical for us. So that's where we go because talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. We bring coding, digital skills, AI for women and girls everywhere, everywhere around the globe. And we know that because Dorin and her team, ITU, they've been working very hard to go and find people, people that don't have no visibility, no agency, nowhere people can find them, but they will go and find those people. That's why the women in AI network we're launching this week will access will do four things. Access, agency, leadership, and wisdom. We have women who are wise across the globe. Women and girls who are not being seen or being heard. We have been heard and seen by it. That's why we one of the affiliate program here at ITU. So before I announce the winner was the most we need to make it very dramatic as Fei told me like really African like drums. We need to make it really dramatic. So the winner really is amazing. uh this a team and they've been working extremely hard and I want to announce this because it is for me like I said an honor to do that but let's really upload and make it big dramatic African drums boo for the winner for the winner. Are you ready guys? >> Are you ready to hear the winner is Rahhat. And so what Rahad are doing, they're doing a smart contract triggered cash assistance and early warnings before disaster in Nepal. Thank you so much. Thank you. Congratulations everyone. Congratulations. And now we will have the obligatory photograph posed beautifully while we watch on impressed and astounded by how >> slick% of Nepal's population is under climate risk. >> The window between forecast and disaster is now just hours giving very little time for action. Rahhat is an open-source blockchain platform that gets verified, automated assistance to people before disasters. Transparent, lowcost, real time, and even in low tech environments. Recently, Nepal watched disaster outrun the help meant to reach it. We're working to close that gap. Join us. >> Um, it's an honor. Thank you to ITU and UNDP and everyone who's been helping us throughout our journey. Rahhat in Nepali is relief and our push is to get assistance and information before the onset of a disaster in low tech environments. We are open source. We're locally led. We're expanding globally and are reaching communities that existing systems often miss. And yet technology including ours could not have predicted or prevented what happened a month ago. Nepal uh saw that the mountains can fail in ways that we fully don't understand yet. This country that produces less than 0.1% of global emissions is paying the heaviest price. And in the initial days of chaos and despair, I actually sat back and questioned the value of solutions like Rahhat. How can technology like blockchain and AI even matter when a thousand people are dead and over 5,000 are still missing? But that's when I had to remind myself that's that's exactly why we can't stop building. We have to keep innovating. We have to keep supporting solutions. And that's why this recognition matters a lot because it gives us the fuel to keep on going even when the problem feels very overwhelming. Our team is in Nepal supporting the front line with technology. If you want to learn more or partner, please reach out to me. And finally, I just like to say that let's not stop at celebrating innovations. Let's advocate for it. Let's fund it. Let's accelerate it. Thank you. Congratulations to the winner of the digital frontier award. I like how you left your award here because you weren't used to having it. Ah, let me take my baby with me. We are going to move on in our journey. We were going to do innovation and we're going to do inclusion and we're going to end up in the future. So, here is the mood music and the mood video for inclusion. Taking us on this journey is Vive Badrinaf, director general of GSMA for glo excuse me for good global for good global commissioner. Did I get that right? VC I get do you know I had the right words but in the wrong order. Vivc save me. Captain >> I'm an AI I'm an AI commissioner for good. No, sorry. That's that's the other that's the wrong one. Okay, I'll start with one question which will tell you a lot about the inanity of the questions I asked myself. What is the difference between Bollywood, Nollywood, and Tywood? So, this is the latest question I'm embarrassed to say that I asked in AI this week. But I think today many of us have that same relationship with AI and we ask a question, we get an answer instantly. Once you've experienced that convenience, it's hard to imagine that you can live without it. Even though it's pretty innate uh for 3.4 billion people in the world, however, living without this is the reality. Without connectivity, all that we say about AI is meaningless. But however, in many places, the networks are already there. 3.1 billion people live within the coverage of a mobile network. We built that network, but they're not using the mobile internet. Why? There are many barriers, and today I'll just focus on two. The first one is affordability. By the end of last year, at last year's RAM prices, an entry-level smartphone cost the poorest populations around 44% of their monthly income. In subsar and Africa the figure rose to 76% which is threearters of their monthly income. But the danger now is that it's much worse. We have entered a global memory crisis which is driving up the cost of devices and entry-level smartphones are disproportionately affected. Without action, without the collective mobilization of all of us through the Hansen coalition and bringing in uh the people who build memories, millions of people will not be able to afford a smartphone. This is a clear and present danger this year. I'll also talk about another subject, which is accessibility. That's the next barrier. Today, there are 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but AI is only trained in a handful. This is the most ugly map you can see of the world. Certainly less elegant than the UN map, but it shows where AI data sets are created and used. Look at how much of the world is missing. If people cannot use AI in the language they speak, if it's not trained with their content, then they're excluded from the opportunities it creates and the models themselves are much less relevant. And we all know what's possible when people are connected. We have mobile money, expanding financial inclusion, digital health services, digital education, creating new opportunities. AI can accelerate all this, but only if it's accessible. Initiatives like Atlas, um AI or Sea Lion are helping us to solve this challenge by building AI in local languages so more people can participate in the digital economy. This is an exciting period. The next breakthrough could come from anywhere, but only if everyone has an opportunity to participate. So today, let's all work together to make sure everyone has the opportunity to afford these uh smartphones and also to have relevant content for themselves. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you, Vivec. I'm going to ask for that microphone back because I will need it in just a moment for Zad Ojaci, head of public policy America's at Tik Tok, and Sha Rainford, founder and CEO at Basque and Leather Company. Thank you so much. Uh, I just need three chairs. I'm so picky. Thank you. Take a chair and a microphone. >> And and this one is there. There. Fantastic. Thank you. >> So, we're telling stories about inclusivity. Good evening. Nice to see you. I'm sure you've been sitting in the audience going, "When is our turn? When is it our turn?" It's so good to see you. All right. So, let's talk about Tik Tok first of all. Um, and when it comes to the small businesses um, building their businesses out, how does Tik Tok make it more inclusive? >> Um, first, thanks for having us here. Yeah. As part of this conversation at Tik Tok, our mission is really simple. It's to inspire creativity and bring joy. And that's what we do for over a billion people around the world. connecting those people, but it also allows millions of businesses, small businesses to thrive. And we're kind of known as this entertainment app where you can see Big Ocean. But there's more to the story. We've become this economic engine for growth. And we looked at the impact recently and we have some some numbers coming out next week. So, sneak preview, but there are 8 12 million small businesses in the United States that rely on our platform, supporting 400,000 jobs and bringing 81 billion to the US economy. And that's not isolated. We see it in Brazil where there's 2.7 billion in economic activity. And across the continent of Europe, it's $ 31 billion. So these are significant numbers and you you ask yourself how is it possible and it's it's possible because it doesn't matter who you are, who you know or how many people are following you, you too can become a a Tik Tok entrepreneur. When I when I go around to some of our markets, I I was in Brazil a few months back and there was one creator who lost his manufacturing job and so he knew he could cook. He starts a stand outside his apartment. He does pretty well and he winds up he winds up going on TikTok at somebody's suggestion and he becomes wildly wildly popular. he now has two restaurants and 12 employees and that's not an isolated case. >> So Tik Tok we feel and AI is tearing down barriers to entrepreneurship. >> But you know what when you when you look at it all what underscores everything is trust trust in the platform. We spend a lot of time on that question and a lot of investment and it's really not po it's not possible without all the people here in this room all our partners because it's team sport. We do this together and together we can not only maintain trust but build on it and take that roaring economic engine into the future. >> Talking about teamwork uh I want to bring in Shaina here. Shaina it's so good to have you. Will you tell us more about your business and how having a digital platform really helped you? >> Yes, so Baskinather is a scalp health and hair wellness brand that started a little over 5 years ago because my youngest sister Aaliyah lost all of her hair. She had a really bad ringorm that was initially misdiagnosed as dandruff. And by the time she got a proper diagnosis, her hair was gone, completely bald from the scalp. And my mom, who's a retired now science teacher of 25 years, was really desperate. Aaliyah was so young she didn't want to use minoxidil or anything pharmaceutical on her hair. So she whipped up this concoction in the kitchen which became our scalp stimulated hair growth oil and it grew Aaliyah's hair from forcy hair from bald to waist length. And then during the pandemic I was working as a nurse practitioner suffered from postcoid hair loss. Nobody knew it was a thing at that time and I used the same oils that my mom created and my hair recovered better than ever and I said this is a product we need to share with the world. Uh, so we set out on a mission to help men, women, and children all over the world grow and keep hair that they love. And now we're one of America's fastest growing privately owned companies. >> So what exactly are in are in your hair products? What what are the ingredients? Just asking for a friend. >> No chemicals. They're all from the earth. Everything that we need is in the earth. So when we talk about digital inclusion, how do you hear that? How does your story embrace that? >> Yes. So we're also not only one of America's fastest growing privately owned companies, we're investor free and debtree. I have no cap table. So and the way we were able to do that is through digital access. We were able to tell our story, created an audience that has an affinity to the brand and we were able to access millions and millions of people that now that we reach a day without we just entered our first retailer this year. So, we did the opposite route that all of our competitors do and we have 1.65 million followers across platforms. >> We're going to talk after >> Shaina Zad. It's so fascinating hearing these stories of inclusivity and what is possible. Thank you so much for being on the stage. We appreciate you. >> As you stand, uh, leave your microphone on your chair. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Excellent job. You know, you always leave people wanting more and I I have more to ask you to, but that that is why we have a reception later. I'm going to ask Pascal uh Dono from the managing he's the managing director and chief knowledge officer at the World Bank Group and Ya Badair is the CEO of Current AI to come onto the stage. Ya is taking her time just to give me a heart attack. >> Okay. And you're going to make me walk to the other chair. >> There we go. >> I knew you would be trouble. I knew it. >> Thank you for creating drama on the stage. Um Pascal, it's always good to see you. >> Great to see you. And how are you? >> Very well, thank you. Lovely to see you here at ANGA. Um you the World Bank has recently done a report. Tell us about that report and how it fits into this idea of inclusivity in our digital growing world. >> I will indeed. So look, good evening everybody. I'm I'm conscious that this has been a long meeting with lots of different stories and reports and so on. So maybe I will just tell a very brief story about something that happened to me a few weeks ago and use that to demonstrate the report. So a few weeks ago I was in India in Uttar Pradesh uh looking at a big farming program uh that the World Bank is involved in to try to help very very very small farmers who are growing their crops mostly just to eat themselves. And we did a big community meeting and in that meeting we asked farmers what do they need? And one of the main things the farmers said to us in the meeting is they need more help to analyze the quality of soil to understand how they can better cro grow grow crops and more of them. And what we are working with partners to do is to allow that to be done by taking a photo of a leaf and using AI to advise the farmer on the soil and what can be better done to grow a crop and more grow more of them. Uh so all that brings me to the report that we published which is called the world development report and the world development makes the po point uh that if scarcity is the problem AI could be the answer when it comes to knowledge and what we have looked at are what are the things that countries can adopt in using AI how they can adapt AI uh to ensure it's in their own language and so on and then been careful about saying at what point countries should look to advance AI in terms of infrastructure. So uh that's what's in the report. It's going to be a big focus of our meetings in a few weeks time. For us it's all about development. AI is a means to development. Uh we keep on talking about the fact there are um 1.2 billion people who are young who are going to be coming into our world who need a job. There's around jobs for 400 million of them. It goes back to the small farmer. It goes back to AI helping that small farmer employ people by about having a better understanding of what can be done in the soil in their community. So that's the report, the story and jobs. >> Very efficient. Thank you. Uh as we look at stories of digital inclusion, where do you want to take us? So I'm going to take Pascal's cue on telling to tell a story uh about how kind of I got thinking about digital inclusion in AI. Um a few years ago I was hosting a dinner party an if party actually and I uh asked one of the AI models to generate a picture of an ifar table. Uh, and it generated a picture that was completely implausible with hummus that looked orange with uh fruits all over the table for supposedly people who are coming from fasting uh for with food that were really implausible for for a family that's coming from an ifar. And it got me down a rabbit hole of how do the AI models understand not only our language but also our cultures? How do they understand our customs? How do they understand our habits? How do they understand things that are not digitized? Uh oral histories, song, prayer, uh um many ancestral knowledge that is unavailable. And so I run uh an organization called Current AI. We're a nonprofit and an international organization. We work with government, with the private sector, and with the philanthropy to uh create AI for the public interest. And a big piece of it is how do you create not only language diversity but cultural diversity and also culture preservation. Uh so we uh this week are launching a uh paper with the UNDP that is specifically focused on the uh the data to AI uh pipeline. It it helps uh actors whether funders, whether governments, uh whether companies that want to look at communities and populations and want to address this problem of so many languages being uh unrepresented. It helps them identify exactly where the problem is, where what stage in the pipeline is the problem is, what can I fund, how can I help, and how can I make sure to change uh the outcome for this uh local community. Uh and so, you know, you do that for language, you do that for culture, you do that for culture preservation. So, not just culture creation. uh and it becomes really a means to rally this incredible amount of energy uh goodwill uh and funding that's going into the field but really diverts it to what what I think is uh more uh productive and more um collaborative Pascal thank you so much really appreciate you uh please take your seats back in the room thank Thank you. I'm continuing with the program, but my boss wants to have a conversation with me. What shall I do? Shall I have the conversation? Shall I continue with the program? Will I fall off a cliff if I continue with the program without talking to my boss? All right, let's interview my boss. Good evening, boss. Good evening, Femy. I have good news. I have the What is the good news, boss? >> I have the minister of Gabon. He has arrived. So, maybe after the youth, we'll invite the minister up so you can ask him your question. Excellent. Thank you for asking me that. Nobody knew that we were communicating. That is fabulous. I am moving on with our program. I love surprises and this is a beautiful thing. We're going to be talking about gender and women in particular in our digital world. And there's somebody very special I would like you to meet and I'm going to bring her up on stage. Fatima Nissa. Hello Fatima. Fatima. Let me move over here so you have the microphone. You have a very important title. >> Thank you. Please tell us what your important title is in the context of our meeting tonight. Go ahead. >> The context. >> Yeah. Your your official title for being here tonight. >> So I'm basically the founder of Youth Service and Policy Pakistan YSP and I'm also an IT 160 gender champion and a co-found change maker >> and also the ITU I60 gender champion. >> 160. >> Yes. 160 sorry from last year. Yeah. >> Can you talk to us about what's the most important part of your work in in terms of digital for all of us making sure that we have a future that includes young women, women and girls. Thank you FI. Uh I think the best way I can answer that is through my own experience. When I was selected as an IT 160 general champion last year through the first phase of IT general champions program with the sport of Canada, that opportunity gave me the confidence um a network and a platform to turn my ideas into action. And with that kind support, I was able to launch youth service and policy Pakistan YSP, the organization under which today I work with the young girls in Pakistan, bringing them hands-on robotics, AI, digital safety and conflict resolution skills because I want them to see technology not just as something they can use but as something they can build to you and use to solve the problems in their communities and that is exactly why the programs like the gender champions program matter. Today, as the ITU general champions program officially launches with the sport of women worldwide web and Australia, I hope more girls will have the opportunity to experience what I did. Um, sometimes you do not need to reach a thousand girls to create a thousand girl impact. You need to empower one girl deeply enough that she can take the opportunity to the others. I experienced that myself as it opened the door for me and now I'm trying to open the similar door for many more girls. Um now it is also my call to the uh decision makers in this room to support more young women to invest in the women and to support the programs like this girls who do not even have access to the AI and the emerging technologies yet but whose life will be deeply shaped by them. In Pakistan, I'm already working with the schools and colleges to bring these opportunities to more young people. And I want to take that much further so that wherever a girl lives or whatever resources a school has does not determine whether she gets to be part of the AI and the future of the technologies. I hope you will join me in making that possible because when you give a girl an opportunity to lead, you do not just change her future, you multiply who gets to shape the future. Thank you. Thank you so much. We continue with our award ceremony. The digital inclusion award will be presented by Excellency Ta Malverton, Ministry of Info, Communication Technology and Postal and Counter Services in Zimbabwe. Minister, are you here? Yes. Behind you. >> Behind me. Thank you. Excellent. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh your excellencies, distinguished delegates, friends. Uh let me thank ITU and UNDP for organizing this and of course Madame SG Dorin. Thank you very much for this opportunity. As Minister of ICT Zimbabwe, I have learned one thing. The hardest part of connectivity is not the cable. It is the courage to include. And tonight I want to put one word on the table. The word is on our screen and is digit all. Meaning that we need to include everyone. This is not just digital but is digit all >> because the all is not a slogan. It is the test. It is not for all. It is not digital. It is just another divide with a faster connection. So the real question is not how many are online. The real question is who is still offline? The girl in the rural village, the farmer, the grandmother, the person with a disability, the refuge, the last mile. Tonight, this award honors those who answered the question with action. They did not wait to be excluded, but they had to make sure everyone is included. They went the last mile. They designed for the blind. They taught the teacher. They powered the village. They made the internet speak the language of people. This is not charity. This is justice. So, I'm here to present an award. I would like to ask every leader here to say how many people have you included who is offline. So to present this award I'm here and this award the category is digital inclusion and this is the community health toolkit by medig mobile inced of Africa of America. Thank you. Well done. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> For millions at the last mile, a community health worker is the first point of care, reaching people at their doorstep when the health system can't. Yet, they often lack the support that they need and a sick child or a difficult pregnancy can go unseen. That's who Medic builds technology for. The community health toolkit or CHT powers over 182,000 community health workers in 24 countries to deliver care to nearly 90 million people. >> Running on mobile phones, CHT apps guide home visits, flag high-risisk cases, and generate actionable data for health systems so that quality care reaches everyone. Thank you. Thank you to ITU, to UNDP, and to the jury for this award. It's a privilege to accept it for the community health tool toolkit on behalf of medic. But this isn't ours alone. It belongs to over 180,000 frontline health workers, mostly women, who deliver care for underserved communities in 24 countries around the world. It belongs to the organizations and ministries of health who shape the open-source toolkit with us every day and to the donors and partners who have made this impact possible. For almost two decades, health workers have used the community health toolkit apps in the last mile to deliver nearly 300 million moments of care, one family at a time, making sure deliveries are safer, children are immuni immunized, and no one is left unseen. From the remote coasts of Kenya to the mountain communities of Nepal toplaced communities in Afghanistan. For us, digital inclusion isn't only about equitable access to technology. It's about what that access makes possible. Health workers delivering quality care at every doorstep and governments able to own and sustain these health systems for decades to come. As the world races to build the next generation of digital and AI tools, we commit to open-source technology built to reach the last door first. That means designing for the health worker who uses a basic phone without reliable power or connectivity in her own language. If it works for her, it will work for everyone everywhere. Most of these health workers will never be in a room like this one. So tonight, this award is for them. The world sees you and celebrates you. Thank you. Congratulations. Our final theme for the evening is the future. Our captain of our future journey you're about to meet. But first, let's just set the scene as we go on a journey into the future. Guiding us we have Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Tristan, it is good to see you as he just stepped out to go to the bathroom. Is that possible? He waited so long and he thought it couldn't possibly be my turn yet, but yet it is. Is Minister Dumba here? >> Minister is M. Hello. Come up. Come up to the stage. >> Take a mic first. Oh, we almost went viral. Oh my goodness, we nearly went viral. That's excellent. Uh, this is how much you're falling into the future. Minister, please stand here. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I know ministers don't like to wait when it's when when they're in the room. So, we've pushed you up into the program, which is great. >> Minister, we are talking about a digital future for all. >> What will you what do you want to share with us this evening? Please go ahead. >> Yeah. Well, uh I I'll take 20 seconds to say something that I wish I had said when he was there. I was flying uh last night and I was watching The Dark Knight Rises. Uh and then I'm seeing Robin on the first row and I'm thinking that's that's incredible. Um but um obviously I'm very excited about the developments around artificial intelligence and all of the benefits that it can generate for society. uh but at the same time I was listening and I read the World Bank report which I think is an amazing contribution to uh the community. Uh but um one being a policy maker in Africa I would say that I'd like to share maybe one or two concerns. The first one is that the continent has traditionally missed the previous industrial revolutions from the electricity and the steam engine uh and the ones that have followed. And the reason why we've missed them is that we've always ended up having to import the outcomes of those industrial re revolutions. And with AI, it seems to me that we are looking like we'll be replicating the same uh dynamic of importing AI algorithm, AI applications and everything that comes with it. So the good thing about leaprogging and Africa is a leaprogging story. The narrative has been about, you know, Africa needs to leaprog using other people's technology in order to accelerate, use the best tools that are out there. But the problem is that the only way to learn is to actually roll up your sleeves and learn how to make these things. And so, so long as we don't find a way to learn how to make these products, they will continue to be eternal dependency on foreign technologies. And while you seeing our continent grow at 3 4% every year, productivity has been very close to zero. If you're looking at the data from 1991 to 2024, uh Africa's productivity rate has been at 0.25% at a quarter of a percent despite leaprogging. So that shows you that there's a point where GDP is about adding value. If you're not adding value yourself, you're importing the technology, but you're not generating the productivity. So that's something that I'm inviting all of the investors, policy makers like myself, partners of Africa's development, Madame Secret, ITU, who's exceptionally, incredible. Um, you know, to to support the continent's agenda on that journey. That's what I would like to sort of leave you with. Thank you so much. >> So So Minister, just before you go, I'm giving you extra duties. So, you said last night you were watching what? On where? >> The Dark Knight Rises. >> Straight into here. >> The Dark Knight Rises. Uh, so Batman, it's incredible that I saw him on the first in the Yeah. So, so Minister, >> THERE HE IS. OH, >> NOT ONLY DID you see him last >> You see our next speaker. >> Yeah. >> In front of you. Would you like to introduce the next speaker as you're so acquainted with his work? >> Yeah. Well, last time I saw him, he was in a cave and he walked towards like this waterfall and then like it rose and Exactly. >> That's incredible. Wow, >> Melissa, your time on stage is done. My time on stage is done. Joseph Gordon Love it. We are so delighted to have you here. Thank you. That was not the planned introduction, but I couldn't resist it. >> Good evening. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to the International Telecommunication Union, uh, the United Nations Development Program for convening digital at ANGA. Thank you to the Secretary General of ITU, Dorene Bghdon Martin, uh, and the, uh, UNDP administrator, Alexander Dro. So, question of the night, who gets a say in our digital future? I think we can all agree that the answer should be everyone. But the question behind the question is how. Maybe people will get their say uh by choosing where to spend their money, right? The good old free market. But we know what happens when we let private companies build the digital world for profit and not for the public good. We've seen the extreme concentration of money and power into the hands of a few big tech companies while the global community was divided and conquered. or maybe better said was conquered and then divided. But really, we can't just blame big tech, right? We all have to take some responsibility, too. These these past couple decades, we didn't do enough to lay down the law and properly govern the internet and social media. And and now the big question is, are we going to make the same mistake with AI? So here in the United States, a big majority of us want our government to step in and regulate this technology. It's actually a rare instance in our country right now where where people from across the political spectrum, left, right, and center, they all agree with each other. And those who disagree, who are against AI regulation, I'll tell you what they mostly say. They say that even if one country does it, other countries might not. They talk about it like an arms race. And they say that global coordination is impossible, so we might as well not even try. Well, here we are at the United Nations. From where I'm standing, global coordination, it looks like a lot of hard work, but it does not look impossible. Yesterday, um, I was telling my kids where I was going and, uh, I was trying to explain to them what the United Nations is. And, uh, and I said to them, "Do you remember when we went to Hiroshima?" And my, uh, my nine-year-old goes, "Daddy, it's Hiroshima. which was pretty great. But um but my my wife and I did take our kids uh to Hiroshima uh recently um and not just because we wanted them to see the tragedy there, but because we wanted them to see human resilience. And I was saying to this to them yesterday, I said, "Do so do you know what happened after the horror of an atomic bomb landing on a city full of people? What happened was people from all over the world got together in a newly created space called the United Nations where folks from every corner of the planet could collaborate on solving big global problems. And the UN General Assembly, the first revol uh resolution that it ever passed is called resolution one was passed in 1946. It was about nuclear weapons. And it's a long story, but to this day, there has not been another nuclear bomb dropped on people. Now, of course, nuclear weapons and AI, they're different. But they both demand global coordination. And we've done it before. It happened right here. And now it's time to do it again. Because I'm not about to tell my kids that we grown-ups just stood by while a few profit-driven companies designed their future for them. Everyone truly should get a say in what the digital future will be. And so I just want to thank everybody here, each and every one of you, for all the work you are doing to make that a reality. Thanks. Who would like to follow a movie star? I don't count, but Amadep Singhill does. United Nations Under Secretary General and UN Secretary General's envoy on technology. Bring it. I I knew this was coming. Thank you, Dorin. Thank you. Thank you, Halang. The ITU and UNDP teams. Uh I guess we started talking about movies and uh The Dark Knight Rises and I was thinking of uh Inception. Um so these spaces these um uh architected cognitive spaces this is really the last bastion for human beings. Uh how we think um what we dream of how we pursue those dreams and I think there are some who would like to construct these spaces for us. uh but I think um it is important that we preserve human agency. It's important that we have the capacities to uh create the architectures of our cognitive uh futures. Uh this morning at the start of digital cooperation day um I mentioned the need to move from passive verbs and nouns uh to more active grammar the grammar of our AI future uh and that's in terms of agency that's very important to be able to design to be able to build uh to be able to test and audit uh and to be able to say no if something doesn't work for you. And I think at the United Nations through this new architecture of digital cooperation uh we have decided to focus on three of those active verbs and the first one is to know. So the scientific panel and today they released their first thematic brief which focuses on uh some of the AI safety issues that are currently uh of concern. The other one is to be able to choose. So those choices in terms of policy they are the theme of the global dialogue on AI governance. The first edition took place in Geneva uh hosted by the ITU in coordination with other partners including UNESCO and my office across the UN system and that'll be pursued uh in New York next year in May. And then finally after you know and after you can choose you have to have the ability to act and that's where capacity becomes important. That's why the secretary general's call last week through his new recommendation for a global fund on AI uh through his recommendation to member states to continue to build out a network approach a peer-to-peer sharing on AI capacity building and for us to continue to dig up the evidence and report on what this gap is where it it it is hurting and what's the supply side and how can we um uh answer the gaps. So that's our agenda for uh next year and I just want to appreciate and applaud the cooperation across the UN system especially with uh ITU and agencies based in Geneva and in Paris and look forward to taking that same spirit to the dialogue in uh 2027 and the forthcoming meeting of the scientific panel which as the minister for digital transformation of Barbados announced announced today would take place there in Barbados from uh 23rd to the 26th of November. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Ammud Badawi, assistant minister for digital transformation in Egypt is a very patient man. I thank you. Look at you skipping to the lectern. What will it take, the most patient man in the room, to turn our ambition for a digital future into reality? So, the lights are actually blinding me, so I can't see anyone. So that gives me a better view of the future. So uh let me start by uh few words from my uh my late father. He told me long time ago this was like 20 years back. Uh he did a lot of volunteer work and one in one question one time I asked him why are we why are you doing that? And the question came out, it's not about talking about the future, it's about building it. It's about taking actions and doing something for the future. And this was the spirit of the whises this year. So it's about taking the vision that we all have. We all share the same vision. We all same about getting technology to work with humans. Humans to work together to build a better technology. the use of AI, access to technology to everyone, inclusion, but the future will never come unless we do something, unless we start working. And this is where the action needs to come. And the spirit in Geneva was all about let's start. Let's have the action. Let's let's turn this into a reality. So >> our main purpose going further >> it's not just about creating reality it's about realizing the impact thing the impact for everyone impact no one is left behind no one is dropped connectivity reached to everyone AI is accessible by everyone and technology is used and is actually being used by everyone for different human prosperity last. So, it's not about designing together. It's about doing together. It's about sharing what we know together. And we hope the future can come to a place we can all sit and we just talked in the past few sessions, sit together and say, "We have done that, but what are we going to do next?" instead of just looking at what was done and what was not done. Definitely the future is there. Technologies will continue evolving. Demands will continue. People will start growing more and more. Generations will come that will ask for more, ask for more technology, more digital, more access to technology. And this is what we need to get prepared for. Let us all bring inclusion into action, bring technology into access. and work together to design a better future for us and for our children and for our childrens before that. Thank you. Many years ago, I was a weather forecaster at CNN International in the United Kingdom. So it gives me great pleasure to introduce Professor Celestee Salo who is the secretary general of the WMO. The WMO was one of my favorite agencies at the time. So I am wondering can you forecast the future of digital that that is what we want to know. It is good to see you. Welcome. >> Thank you very much. uh I wasn't aware that you were for working in that area. So that's great. So um it's later but I will speak as a meteorologist. You know, I am a meteorologist by education and uh at this moment I I think that all of us know that the the world is exposed to more and more extreme weather, extreme events, floods in Indonesia, uh extreme heat in Europe, uh the tragedy in Nepal and what is the common denominator? What's the problem? one of the big problems that we are still losing lives and we are damaging economies. So um here we are today uh to ask ourselves and what does digital bring to all of this and I want to share first one one figure here uh and and it it's telling the story of the heat where all the excess heat excess heat that we are producing goes 90% of the excess heat we produce go to the oceans and you can see what is happening with the ocean temperature. It is rising rising and rising and rising and that's uh that's one of the signals of our warming world and in this year with the lino it's even worse but here we are in 2026 with another record. So what does digital or what does digital do for us? Well, digital helps us gather all these data, process this data and understand this data. But digital also can help us prevent and work ahead and that is what I want to highlight now. So digital is part of the early warnings for all initi initiative. We are we are bringing different partners to work on early warnings. Something that was awarded today. Early warnings save lives. But early warnings need all of us need partnerships, need technology, need data, need uh understanding science. to um I I would say that it's an unique opportunity to bring digital partnerships, knowledge and understanding into something that save lives and that is what digital and early warnings for all bring. Imagine when we put AI on top of this and we say okay what about having my own early warning for my own needs. It's not only about language and culture. It's about what do I do with my kids? What do I do with my family? Where should I go if there is an event? So, um this is not only the last mile. With AI, we can go into the last meter if and only if we use it responsibly with inclusivity, thinking on people and their culture and their values. So my message to you is yes, digital is important. It can bring us to the next level. Is a unique opportunity to what? to do these things better, faster, have better forecast, f better advice, reach people sooner, but if and only if we do it with inclusivity and equality. That's my message for digital and early warnings. Thank you very much. How can digital technology save mankind is not a question that we've heard much over the last couple of weeks, but it's something that we definitely want to address. Dr. Raman Chowry is the CEO and founder of Humane Intelligence. Uh Dr. Roman, will you come to the stage please? Thank you. I can only imagine the kind of conversations you've been having recently. >> Oh, absolutely. Uh, I would say about three times a day, every day for the past week, I've been asked the question, will AI end humanity? And I've had to give a technical answer and also an answer that makes people feel better about their lives. Uh, as folks in this room know, I've been working for the past decade on AI governance. Whether it is building the first responsible AI team at Accenture, leading ethical AI at Twitter, or running my nonprofit and now public benefit corporation, Humane Intelligence. So, the question about the risks of AI, can you answer it one more time? I know you've asked as answered it three times today already, but on our stage, >> absolutely, >> what are the risks? what should we be worried about or not worried about? >> So when you ask the question whether or not AI will end humanity, I think about how anthropologists understand what humanity is. And it, you know, some of the earliest definitions of human civilization was actually discovering bones that had been broken and healed. And when when asked why, they said it's because the other people cared for them. So when we think about saving humanity, we actually have to think about the most vulnerable populations. And in this case, it often is children. So I'm here today, I'm very excited to announce to you a $10 million philanthropic effort called the independent AI evaluation foundation where we are going to be providing and professionalizing the fields of AI evaluation. What that means is building out the infrastructure, the tooling which will be opening up the technology that I've been building at human intelligence for the past year. It means providing job opportunities and training and it also means providing a focus. Now I mentioned the most vulnerable and I mentioned children. Our first area of focus will be education and we'll be spending this funding towards defining meaningful testing and moving the needle forward in three critical areas. human centricity, cognitive flourishing, and economic flourishing. And my hope is when we sit together in Geneva next year, I will be able to demonstraably show you partners we have worked with to drive positive change in these three areas. >> Dr. Chowry, have you made that announcement anywhere else today or ever? >> Well, no. It was very briefly discussed. We talked about it uh earlier at ODET, but you know, this is our actual formal announcement stage. So thank you for being my initial audience and and I hope to find in this room collaboration and collaborative partners. Dr. Chowry we thank you so much. >> Thank you. We continue with our awards ceremony and there is an an award that we want to make for governance and Pamela Ko Hamilton will be making that announcement for who has won that award. Pamela. Pamela, it's been sitting there so long she doesn't recognize her own name. I know how you feel, Pamela. >> It's late. >> Sorry. Uh, good night everybody. Um, I didn't want to date myself actually cuz uh when I saw Joseph Gordon Levit, I thought of Third Rock from the Sun. And uh that's yeah, that's way back, you know. But um at any rate uh this is just my my photo op because uh anyway I want to thank it for the invitation to be here and also Dr. Drew from uh UNDP. Um I think it's an honor to have the opportunity to celebrate uh oh great the winner of the digital government category. one whose work typifies how digital technologies can bring governments even closer to the people they serve. But before I announce this year's winner, I want to first talk about why digital government matters for an agency like ITC, whose mandate is focused on the competitiveness of small businesses and their ability to trade. So, I hope you'll forgive me for keeping you in suspense a while longer. Governments and the services they provide set the frame for how we each live our lives. And as more governments go digital, more of the firms we work with have been able to grow, explore new market opportunities, and create new jobs at home. Because digital government solutions are saving these firms two of the most precious resources they have, time and money. We'd see it ourselves every day in Central Asia. An online portal known as the Central Asia Gateway brings together data from the national trade facilitation portals of five countries so that users can easily see what trade procedures they need to follow and where all in one place. In Sri Lanka, preferential certificates certificates of origin, those documents that determine whether a product can benefit from lower tariffs under different trade deals can now be obtained online, saving firms a total of 4 million per year. And these same certificates of origin are now accepted electronically in 35 countries. From Bhutan to Jordan and across entire E regions such as East Africa, governments are increasingly making trade related procedures documents available online. So these are far from the only examples. I could talk about digital quality systems management, crossber recognition etc. But my point is this. For every entrepreneur with a dream, whether their government is adopting digital technologies and solutions can make or break their business prospects. And that can affect entire communities and even entire societies. Which is why it is now my great pleasure to announce this year's winner of the digital government award celebrating a government initiative that has helped citizens across critical public services even during a devastating conflict. And the award goes to the government of Ukraine and its dear portal. Unfortunately, they're not yet here to receive it. Uh, they have probably bigger things to do. >> Pamela, thank you. >> I'm going to ask you to go back to your seat. >> We appreciate your efforts. digital at ANGA. So this evening, thank you for staying all evening. It is only about 7:33, but in anger time, that's like 1:00 a.m. in the morning. I know because you've been doing things all day. If you're outside, please come in. You you will thank me for asking you to come in. We have been talking all evening about digital innovation, inclusion, a digital future. And we really wanted to demonstrate what does that really look like? What are the possibilities when you bring innovation, music, technology, inclusivity all together? We came up with an idea. We wanted you to experience the work, the music, the talent of the K-pop band Big Ocean. I am going to let them tell their own story in English, in KSA, which is Korean sign language, in international sign language, and with other bits of technology that you will marvel at. Big ocean, please come to the stage. Good evening. Okay. Yep. Oh, good evening everyone. My name is PJ. Yeah. And I am a member of Big Ocean, the world first step K-pop group. Yeah. >> Yeah. Tonight I am not standing alone here. Chogi is signing my words in American Sign Language. Chyon in Korean sign language and everything we say is running as live captures on the screen. So please follow along in whichever language is yours. Okay, let me share a secret. Standing on this stage, I cannot hear my own voice the way you hear it. And yet I am a singer. This is not a miracle. That is technology. I lost most of my hearing when I was three. Everyone told me music was impossible for someone like me. Then on April 20th, 2024, Korea's day of people with disabilities, the three of us debuted as a K-pop group. And everyone asked how. Here is how. We better the vibrating metronomes on our waist. And we follow the flesh in time with the music. So AI helps us tune the notes we cannot hear. And with dance with sign language. So death fans don't just watch our music, they understand it. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. And technology technology didn't fix us. We were never broken and technology connected us. So more than 400 million people live with disabling hearing loss. By 2050 it will be 700 million. What is it designed in the rooms you will decide whether those billions are invited in or locked out. So we ask one thing. Do not add accessibility at the end. Begin with it. When you design for people, people people like me, you make technology better for everyone. Later tonight, we will perform for you. You will see us sing with sign language. And if you are wearing hearing aids like we are, our music will stream directly into your ears through all cast. Our slogan is same music fil music. Yeah. So yeah. So the future was never meant for only some of us. Let's build this digital future together. Thank you, >> PJ. I would like to give you this envelope. Thank you, Big Ocean. >> Oh, thank you. >> We enjoyed your story very much. It took twice as long because we were applauding how beautiful it was. >> Digital pioneers award. Would you tell us more about that and also announce the winner? Thank you. >> Thanks much. >> Okay. Thanks, Pammy. And now we are pleased to announce we are um the winner the pioneer award. This award recognizes outstanding innovations led by young pioneers who are between 25 and 40 years old and who are driving positive change through creative and impactful digital solutions. Okay. And and the winner lead AI. Congratulations. Whoa. Yeah. Congratulations. >> In Mexico, four out of 10 trafficking victims were recruited with a fake job offer. Ramona is the first AI trained on real trafficking recruitment data. You forward her any job offer on WhatsApp and she tells you whether it's legitimate free in minutes. In one year, Ramona has protected over 800 people with 99% accuracy across six countries because nobody is exempt. Digital at ANGA in make in Ramona. We believe that there is nothing more valuable than life and we want we want to leave our mark in this world through the way we help others. I accept this award on behalf of the of the entire Ramona team because this is a group effort of people that understand that technology should and can be used for good. I also want to thank all the people that made this possible uh UNA and it and UNDP and all of the people that had believe in our mission that has supported us and who has helped us to get to where we are today. This recognition will motivate us to keep going, to keep innovating. Uh because we know that behind every technology, behind every algorithm, behind every interaction, there is people, there is life and must be protected. Thank you very much. >> Thank you and congratulations. If you think for one moment that we were going to have Big Ocean on stage just to speak, you are mistaken. If you are already standing at the back of the room, that also means that you are preparing to dance. So, I'm excited about that. But before we get to Big Ocean performing, we have to close our conversation and our gathering before the concert can begin. So I invite back onto stage our co-hosts Dorin Bogdan Martin, Secretary General of the ITU and Hal Yang Shu, associate administrator of the UNDP. And I almost didn't recognize them because they are in their dancing clothes ready in their t-shirts. I like this a lot. >> Thank you. Thank you. So you see what a great partnership this is. We actually picked the same color or like >> by by chance by chance. Okay. >> Uh ladies and gentlemen, what an evening it has been. We have seen what innovation can make possible. We have heard why inclusion must remain at the center and we've witnessed the power of partnership in action. We also celebrated the winners of the digital atanga awards and halyang if you had to capture tonight in two words just two words >> okay time >> what would they be >> I think it would be ambition and the partnerships we know the challenges ahead but we heard tonight the tremendous ambitions across solutions sectors and the leadership Right. And but also to realize this ambition then we need a partnerships. We have to work across sectors, work together but Dorin. So what are your two words? Oo that's a tough question. Um I'm going to say empowerment and action. I think tonight reminded us that digital can be a force for empowerment for so many. But it's going to require our collective action each and every one of us. Our collective action to extend those benefits to everyone everywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, to every speaker, partner, storyteller, and change maker who joined us tonight. to our amazing MC Fammy. LET ME let me thank you all for your leadership, your ideas and your action. >> Yes, but the conversation doesn't uh end here. Please stay for the reaction uh for the reception and uh talk to somebody new connect an idea uh you know to uh action and also turn the momentum into action. So uh let's continue. >> So before we wrap up this evening and you can see we're in our dancing clothes. I think we have one more reason to celebrate. Please join us in welcoming back to the stage >> big ocean. I'm a oneman army. I'm sitting here waiting. You got to know that it's the last time putting a in the air like I just lost my mind. Should have known you couldn't understand the power when the lose. We get to choose a fingest. It's all we've got right now. Sh we breathe. This is fest. We're the hero. to me. If this is the last of me, you're waiting like always, but never defeated. This is the last meas. Heat. Heat. I want to be the brick making. We got to give it all the fing away. You're waiting like a one main army cuz I've always been beaten but never defeated rise back up again. This is the last you know me. Okay. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you so much >> everyone. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Everyone that song is our one man army. Yeah. So yeah the song was one man army and yeah so for this song yeah we b we felt um we were fighting against a long u prejudice. Yeah, but we become to believe that every everyone is fighting their own battles. So even when you feel like a oneman army, let's hold on together. So to everyone here tonight, our day is respect. Thank you. Okay, now let's celebrate. Um, please join us and our next song flow. Uh, >> follow me. Okay. Okay. This is so uh sorry this is sign language flow. >> Flow. >> This is flow in sign language. >> Okay. Yeah. Pull back together. One more. One more time. Okay. Three, two, one. >> Blow. Blow. Blow. >> Yeah. That's right. So, uh when it comes when it come when blow comes up in the song. Yeah. We hope you follow this language together. Are you ready? >> Yeah. >> Let's go. I wish baby watch or not. Let's go. >> Baby, you're a widow. You're the one that I've been into. You're like water to me. Like pure poetry. You're the hero I've been missing. You've been blowing through me. You're like water to me. Like water to me. Cuz when you stop always slows down. Yes, it does. And you start the beat of my heart. >> And when you stop when we are the wish I could always be star power, you got a million friends. You only make me taste deeper water. Silver power. Wish I could leave you. You know what? You got a million friends. You only wish I had you all to tell you that I'm always there. >> Love is good. Good for my health. You and me, we breathe the same breath. Can't even stand one day without you. Wake up in the morning, I already miss you. Kiss you profess. Professional promise, not a big deal. Do the same things. So my fall, you always be my lady. Always slow down. Yes, it does. And you start the beat of my heart. >> And when you stop when we are aart. Oh my god. I wish I could always from THE START. >> YEAH. YEAH. MY deeper water super power. You got a million face. You only make me dance. Deeper water. Super power. Wish I could live around you. >> You got a million face. You only make me wish I had you hold to tell you that I'm always there. Everyone put your hands up in the sky now. >> I got my flow. I got my flow. Deeper water. Super power. You got a million friends. You make me dance. Thank you so much. Have a good night. >> Thank you so much. >> Have a wonderful night. >> Thank you so much. >> Big ocean. And now, thank you for being here for the entire evening. We will reward you with the reception. We have food. You can take a breath. Why am I out of breath? I do not know. We'll also thank you for looking at how we can have a digital future together. If you look at the ITU website in a few days time, you'll be able to watch all of this back and see your fantastic dancing wrapping up the entire event. Thank you. Have a good night and don't forget. What can we do to build a digital future together? Good night.