Global Youth Participation Index – GYPI

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

About: “The GYPI Report offers a powerful, data-driven overview of youth political participation in over 141 countries. From voting rights to civic activism, the report explores how young people engage in politics and where gaps persist. Inside, you’ll find:

  • Global rankings and country-level scores across four key dimensions of youth participation: Socio-Economic, Civic Space, Political Affairs and Elections,
  • Regional insights and thematic trends,
  • Actionable recommendations for policymakers, civil society, and international organisations.

Whether you’re a decision-maker, activist, researcher, or advocate, the report gives you the tools to better understand and strengthen youth participation in public life…(More)”.

Sustainable Development Report 2025

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Report by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN): “Ten years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress remains alarmingly off-track, with less than 20% of targets projected to be achieved by 2030…The SDR includes the SDG Index and Dashboards, which rank all UN Member States on their performance across the 17 Goals, and this year’s report features a new Index (SDGi), which focuses on 17 headline indicators to track overall SDG progress over time…This year’s SDR highlights five key findings:

The Global Financial Architecture (GFA) must be urgently reformed to finance global public goods and achieve sustainable development. Roughly half the world’s population resides in countries that cannot adequately invest in sustainable development due to unsustainable debt burdens and limited access to affordable, long-term capital. Sustainable development is a high-return investment, yet the GFA continues to direct capital toward high-income countries instead of EMDEs, which offer stronger growth prospects and higher returns. Global public goods also remain significantly underfinanced. The upcoming Ff4D offers a critical opportunity for UN Member States to reform this system and ensure that international financing flows at scale to EMDEs to achieve sustainable development…

At the global level, SDG progress has stalled; none of the 17 Global Goals are on track, and only 17% of the SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. Conflicts, structural vulnerabilities, and limited fiscal space continue to hinder progress, especially in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs). The five targets showing significant reversal in progress since 2015 include: obesity rate (SDG 2), press freedom (SDG 16), sustainable nitrogen management (SDG 2), the red list index (SDG 15), and the corruption perception index (SDG 16). Conversely, many countries have made notable progress in expanding access to basic services and infrastructure, including: mobile broadband use (SDG 9), access to electricity (SDG 7), internet use (SDG 9), under-5 mortality rate (SDG 3), and neonatal mortality (SDG 3). However, future progress on many of these indicators, including health-related outcomes, is threatened by global tensions and the decline in international development finance.

Barbados leads again in UN-based multilateralism commitment, while the U.S. ranks last. The SDR 2025’s Index of countries’ support to UN-based multilateralism (UN-Mi) ranks countries based on their support for and engagement with the UN system. The top three countries most committed to UN multilateralism are: Barbados (#1), Jamaica (#2), and Trinidad and Tobago (#3). Among G20 nations, Brazil (#25) ranks highest, while Chile (#7) leads among OECD countries. In contrast, the U.S., which recently withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO) and formally declared its opposition to the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, ranks last (#193) for the second year in a row…(More)”

From Safer Cities to Healthier Lives: The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

World Economic Forum: “As cities become more connected, collaborative sensing is enabling vehicles, traffic systems and emergency services to coordinate in real time – improving safety and easing congestion. This is just one of the World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025 that is expected to deliver real-world impact within three to five years and address urgent global challenges….The report outlines what is needed to bring them to scale: investment, infrastructure, standards and responsible governance, and calls on business, government and the scientific community to collaborate to ensure their development serves the public good.

Trajectory of emerging technologies in healthcare overtime.
Trajectory of emerging technologies in healthcare overtime.

This year’s edition highlights a trend towards technology convergence. For example, structural battery composites combine energy with storage design, while engineered living therapeutics merge synthetic biology and precision medicine. Such integration signals a shift away from standalone innovations to more integrated systems-based solutions, reshaping what is possible.

“The path from breakthrough research to tangible societal progress depends on transparency, collaboration, and open science,” said Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor, Frontiers. “Together with the World Economic Forum, we have once again delivered trusted, evidence-based insights on emerging technologies that will shape a better future for all.”

The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025

Trust and safety in a connected world:

1. Collaborative sensing

Networks of connected sensors can help vehicles, cities and emergency services share information in real time. This can improve safety, reduce traffic and respond faster to crises.

2. Generative watermarking

This technology adds invisible tags to AI-generated content, making it easier to tell what is real and what is not. It could help fight misinformation and protect trust online…(More)”.

Introducing CC Signals: A New Social Contract for the Age of AI

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Creative Commons: “Creative Commons (CC) today announces the public kickoff of the CC signals project, a new preference signals framework designed to increase reciprocity and sustain a creative commons in the age of AI. The development of CC signals represents a major step forward in building a more equitable, sustainable AI ecosystem rooted in shared benefits. This step is the culmination of years of consultation and analysis. As we enter this new phase of work, we are actively seeking input from the public. 

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms how knowledge is created, shared, and reused, we are at a fork in the road that will define the future of access to knowledge and shared creativity. One path leads to data extraction and the erosion of openness; the other leads to a walled-off internet guarded by paywalls. CC signals offer another way, grounded in the nuanced values of the commons expressed by the collective.

Based on the same principles that gave rise to the CC licenses and tens of billions of works openly licensed online, CC signals will allow dataset holders to signal their preferences for how their content can be reused by machines based on a set of limited but meaningful options shaped in the public interest. They are both a technical and legal tool and a social proposition: a call for a new pact between those who share data and those who use it to train AI models.

“CC signals are designed to sustain the commons in the age of AI,” said Anna Tumadóttir, CEO, Creative Commons. “Just as the CC licenses helped build the open web, we believe CC signals will help shape an open AI ecosystem grounded in reciprocity.”

CC signals recognize that change requires systems-level coordination. They are tools that will be built for machine and human readability, and are flexible across legal, technical, and normative contexts. However, at their core CC signals are anchored in mobilizing the power of the collective. While CC signals may range in enforceability, legally binding in some cases and normative in others, their application will always carry ethical weight that says we give, we take, we give again, and we are all in this together.…

Now Ready for Feedback 

More information about CC signals and early design decisions are available on the CC website. We are committed to developing CC signals transparently and alongside our partners and community. We are actively seeking public feedback and input over the next few months as we work toward an alpha launch in November 2025….(More)”

Government at a Glance 2025

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

OECD Report: “Governments face a highly complex operating environment marked by major demographic, environmental, and digital shifts, alongside low trust and constrained fiscal space. 

Responding effectively means concentrating efforts on three fronts: Enhancing individuals’ sense of dignity in their interactions with government, restoring a sense of security amid rapid societal and economic changes, and improving government efficiency and effectiveness to help boost productivity in the economy, while restoring public finances. These priorities converge in the governance of the green transition.

Government at a Glance 2025 offers evidence-based tools to tackle these long-term challenges…

Governments are not yet making the most of digital tools and data to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Data, digital tools and AI all offer the prospect of efficiency gains. OECD countries score, on average, 0.61 on the Digital Government Index (on a 0-1 scale) but could improve their digital policy frameworks, whole-of-government approaches and use of data as a strategic asset. On average, only 47% of OECD governments’ high-value datasets are openly available, falling to just 37% in education and 42% in health and social welfare…(More)”.

Sharing trustworthy AI models with privacy-enhancing technologies

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OECD Report: “Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) are critical tools for building trust in the collaborative development and sharing of artificial intelligence (AI) models while protecting privacy, intellectual property, and sensitive information. This report identifies two key types of PET use cases. The first is enhancing the performance of AI models through confidential and minimal use of input data, with technologies like trusted execution environments, federated learning, and secure multi-party computation. The second is enabling the confidential co-creation and sharing of AI models using tools such as differential privacy, trusted execution environments, and homomorphic encryption. PETs can reduce the need for additional data collection, facilitate data-sharing partnerships, and help address risks in AI governance. However, they are not silver bullets. While combining different PETs can help compensate for their individual limitations, balancing utility, efficiency, and usability remains challenging. Governments and regulators can encourage PET adoption through policies, including guidance, regulatory sandboxes, and R&D support, which would help build sustainable PET markets and promote trustworthy AI innovation…(More)”.

Understanding the Impacts of Generative AI Use on Children

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Primer by The Alan Turing Institute and LEGO Foundation: “There is a growing body of research looking at the potential positive and negative impacts of generative AI and its associated risks. However, there is a lack of research that considers the potential impacts of these technologies on children, even though generative AI is already being deployed within many products and systems that children engage with, from games to educational platforms. Children have particular needs and rights that must be accounted for when designing, developing, and rolling out new technologies, and more focus on children’s rights is needed. While children are the group that may be most impacted by the widespread deployment of generative AI, they are simultaneously the group least represented in decision-making processes relating to the design, development, deployment or governance of AI. The Alan Turing Institute’s Children and AI and AI for Public Services teams explored the perspectives of children, parents, carers and teachers on generative AI technologies. Their research is guided by the ‘Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children’ (RITEC) framework for digital technology, play and children’s wellbeing established by UNICEF and funded by the LEGO Foundation and seeks to examine the potential impacts of generative AI on children’s wellbeing. The utility of the RITEC framework is that it allows for the qualitative analysis of wellbeing to take place by foregrounding more specific factors such as identity and creativity, which are further explored in each of the work packages.

The project provides unique and much needed insights into impacts of generative AI on children through combining quantitative and qualitative research methods…(More)”.

2025 State of the Digital Decade

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Report by The European Commission: “…assessed the EU’s progress along the four target areas for the EU’s digital transformation by 2030, highlighting achievements and gaps in the areas of digital infrastructure, digitalisation of businesses, digital skills, and digitalisation of public service.

Digital Decade logo

The report shows that although there are certain advancements, the rollout of connectivity infrastructure, such as fibre and 5G stand-alone networks, is still lagging. More companies are adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud and big data, but adoption needs to accelerate. Just over half of Europeans (55.6%) have a basic level of digital skills, while the availability of ICT specialists with advanced skills remains low and with a stark gender divide, hindering progress in key sectors, such as cybersecurity and AI. In 2024, the EU made steady progress in digitalising key public services, but a substantial portion of governmental digital infrastructure continues to depend on service providers outside the EU.

The data shows persisting challenges, such as fragmented markets, overly complex regulations, security and strategic dependence. Further public and private investment and easier access to venture capital for EU companies would accelerate innovation and scale up…(More)”.

Five dimensions of scaling democratic deliberation: With and beyond AI

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Sammy McKinney and Claudia Chwalisz: “In the study and practice of deliberative democracy, academics and practitioners are increasingly exploring the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in scaling democratic deliberation. From claims by leading deliberative democracy scholars that AI can bring deliberation to the ‘mass’, or ‘global’, scale, to cutting-edge innovations from technologists aiming to support scalability in practice, AI’s role in scaling deliberation is capturing the energy and imagination of many leading thinkers and practitioners.

There are many reasons why people may be interested in ‘scaling deliberation’. One is that there is evidence that deliberation has numerous benefits for the people involved in deliberations – strengthening their individual and collective agency, political efficacy, and trust in one another and in institutions. Another is that the decisions and actions that result are arguably higher-quality and more legitimate. Because the benefits of deliberation are so great, there is significant interest around how we could scale these benefits to as many people and decisions as possible.

Another motivation stems from the view that one weakness of small-scale deliberative processes results from their size. Increasing the sheer numbers involved is perceived as a source of legitimacy for some. Others argue that increasing the numbers will also increase the quality of the outputs and outcome.

Finally, deliberative processes that are empowered and/or institutionalised are able to shift political power. Many therefore want to replicate the small-scale model of deliberation in more places, with an emphasis on redistributing power and influencing decision-making.

When we consider how to leverage technology for deliberation, we emphasise that we should not lose sight of the first-order goals of strengthening collective agency. Today there are deep geo-political shifts; in many places, there is a movement towards authoritarian measures, a weakening of civil society, and attacks on basic rights and freedoms. We see the debate about how to ‘scale deliberation’ through this political lens, where our goals are focused on how we can enable a citizenry that is resilient to the forces of autocracy – one that feels and is more powerful and connected, where people feel heard and empathise with others, where citizens have stronger interpersonal and societal trust, and where public decisions have greater legitimacy and better alignment with collective values…(More)”

Generative AI Outlook Report

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Outlook report, prepared by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC): “…examines the transformative role of Generative AI (GenAI) with a specific emphasis on the European Union. It highlights the potential of GenAI for innovation, productivity, and societal change. GenAI is a disruptive technology due to its capability of producing human-like content at an unprecedented scale. As such, it holds multiple opportunities for advancements across various sectors, including healthcare, education, science, and creative industries. At the same time, GenAI also presents significant challenges, including the possibility to amplify misinformation, bias, labour disruption, and privacy concerns. All those issues are cross-cutting and therefore, the rapid development of GenAI requires a multidisciplinary approach to fully understand its implications. Against this context, the Outlook report begins with an overview of the technological aspects of GenAI, detailing their current capabilities and outlining emerging trends. It then focuses on economic implications, examining how GenAI can transform industry dynamics and necessitate adaptation of skills and strategies. The societal impact of GenAI is also addressed, with focus on both the opportunities for inclusivity and the risks of bias and over-reliance. Considering these challenges, the regulatory framework section outlines the EU’s current legislative framework, such as the AI Act and horizontal Data legislation to promote trustworthy and transparent AI practices. Finally, sector-specific ‘deep dives’ examine the opportunities and challenges that GenAI presents. This section underscores the need for careful management and strategic policy interventions to maximize its potential benefits while mitigating the risks. The report concludes that GenAI has the potential to bring significant social and economic impact in the EU, and that a comprehensive and nuanced policy approach is needed to navigate the challenges and opportunities while ensuring that technological developments are fully aligned with democratic values and EU legal framework…(More)”.