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What would an AI university look like and how might it change education?

The new Spanish pension reform, effective April 2025, is deemed unsustainable, as simulations indicate worsening financial conditions instead of improvement. Despite previous attempts to create a sustainable pension model, the recent reversal of key reforms has increased pension costs significantly. Key changes, including higher contribution rates and a minimum pension target, will lead to a projected rise in pension spending from 12.9% of GDP in 2022 to 17.7% by 2050, resulting in a deficit of 6% of GDP. The proposal includes reinstating automatic adjustments linked to life expectancy, adopting mandatory individual accounts, and implementing compensatory measures to create a truly sustainable system.

Why the new Spanish pension reform is unsustainable

U.S. President Donald Trump's May visit to the Arab Gulf focused on business and artificial intelligence (AI), culminating in agreements to sell advanced U.S. chips to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Plans for AI mega-campuses in the Gulf will potentially make the region a major hub for AI infrastructure, surpassing Europe and India. The Gulf states committed to significant investments in U.S. AI companies, facilitating expansion without infrastructure bottlenecks and extending U.S. AI technologies across Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This cooperation positions computing power as a new pillar in U.S.-Gulf relations, rivaling oil.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Compute Is the New Oil

Online survey research, essential for scientific data collection, is threatened by advanced AI, specifically a tool called "an autonomous synthetic respondent," developed by Dartmouth's Sean Westwood. This AI can answer survey questions while evading detection methods with a success rate of 99.8%. Existing techniques to identify inattentive or automated responses, such as attention check questions and behavioral flags, are now inadequate. Westwood warns that the prevalence of AI in survey responses undermines the reliability of collected data, potentially endangering the integrity of the knowledge ecosystem.

A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On

Developing economies are increasingly leveraging the growing space economy, projected to exceed $1.8 trillion by 2035. Access to satellite technology is enhancing connectivity, climate resilience, and data-driven decision-making. Initiatives like CubeSats are enabling countries without extensive space programs to capture value, as seen with Kenya and Brazil's advancements in satellite deployment. Low Earth orbit constellations are providing critical broadband access and supporting essential services. However, challenges such as orbital congestion and unequal access persist, necessitating fair practices to ensure all economies benefit from space resources.

Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Republic of Korea, South Africa | Financial services, Health, Education, ICT

Developing economies are making space and the orbital economy work for them

Using AI tools has a modest carbon footprint compared to daily activities like commuting or consuming meat. While individual AI usage emits less carbon (approximately five grams per query), the infrastructure supporting AI, particularly hyperscale data centers, significantly strains energy systems. These facilities may triple their energy consumption by 2028, contributing to a notable rise in U.S. electricity demand. The focus should be on regulatory measures for energy efficiency and sustainable practices, as individual AI interactions are less impactful than larger environmental decisions made by corporations.

Should I Feel Guilty about Using AI?

Impact investing is increasingly criticized for failing to deliver real-world change, as the focus has shifted from intentionality to seeking market-rate returns. The decline in capital, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, has highlighted the inadequacy of current impact investing practices. Both investors and philanthropists express dissatisfaction with the model's expectations and requirements, which inhibits innovation in resource-constrained regions. The author argues for the elimination of impact investing in favor of genuine concessionary finance, which prioritizes impact over financial returns, effectively labeling such support as philanthropy.

There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing

MENA diaspora entrepreneurs are leveraging their unique position to enhance innovation and cooperation in their home countries. They transfer knowledge and drive economic growth, with a potential engagement of just 1% of the global MENA diaspora significantly boosting the region’s technological capabilities. Examples include Morocco's UM6P Ventures supporting startups like Chari, Tunisia's InstaDeep gaining international success, and Egypt's fintech growth through global network investments. These entrepreneurs create context-sensitive solutions, maintain cross-border relationships, and provide resilience amid crises, although their contributions often go unrecognized in formal strategies.

Ethiopia | Financial services, Health, ICT, Education

Innovation beyond borders: how MENA diaspora entrepreneurs are reshaping systems

King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia presents a model for implementing sustainable AI in healthcare through a comprehensive approach that includes embedding AI into workflows, fostering governance, and aligning with national priorities. Key strategies involve starting with problem-solving, establishing rigorous governance processes, and creating a strong innovation team. The hospital emphasizes a structured seven-stage governance process for evaluating new AI solutions and has developed a Digital Innovation Hub to manage AI product life cycles effectively. This model aims to drive real value and measurable outcomes in patient care.

Health, Education

Sustainable AI in healthcare: A model from Saudi Arabia

Futurists Sofie Hvitved and Bugge Holm Hansen emphasize understanding AI's development holistically, focusing on its systemic societal impacts rather than just technology. They caution against polarized views of AI as either wholly beneficial or catastrophic, advocating for nuanced discourse. AI should augment human thinking as a collaborative tool, not replace it, while maintaining awareness of ethical concerns and dependence risks. They highlight the distinction between rapid AI-supported foresight and traditional deep futures thinking, stressing intentional use to avoid limiting perspectives and preserve human agency in envisioning the future.

Eight Questions for Two Futurists

The metaverse and AI are perpetuating new forms of exploitation reminiscent of historical injustices. Digital economies often rely on marginalized workers in low-wage regions, such as content moderators, who face psychological trauma and poor working conditions. Practices like "gold farming" and "play-to-earn" gaming pretense economic empowerment while predominantly benefiting wealthier players. Additionally, the production of hardware for the metaverse involves exploitative labor in resource-rich regions like the DRC. As demand for critical minerals rises, regulatory bodies are under pressure to enforce ethical labor standards amidst these evolving challenges.

The metaverse is ushering in a new era of behind-the -scenes exploitation

The integration of AI in everyday devices is contributing to environmental harm through both direct and indirect emissions. Data centers and AI queries consume excessive energy, while AI applications promote hyperconsumption by defaulting to shopping-oriented results rather than sustainable alternatives. Research highlights the term “algorithmically facilitated emissions” to describe these indirect impacts, as AI tools like Microsoft’s Copilot prioritize consumerism without acknowledging environmental costs. Tech companies largely neglect environmental considerations in their policies, prompting calls for accountability among platform owners regarding their ecological footprint.

How ‘everyday AI’ encourages overconsumption

Regenerative medicine is poised to address the rising healthcare challenges posed by an aging global population, projected to reach 2.1 billion individuals over 60 by 2050. As healthspan and lifespan improve, the need for innovative solutions to manage age-related diseases becomes critical. Healthcare spending is on the rise, particularly in OECD countries, with significant disparities in per capita investment. Regenerative medicine, focusing on restoring cellular function rather than merely managing symptoms, is essential for sustaining health in aging populations. Initiatives like Cellino’s AI-powered manufacturing of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent the future of personalized therapies, making regenerative treatments more accessible globally.

Education, Health

Why regenerative medicine infrastructure must be the next global economic priority

Foresight plays a crucial role in organizations by enabling practitioners to engage with future-oriented disciplines to inform decision-making across various sectors, including public, private, academic, and civic. With extensive global experience, foresight experts provide advisory services, training, and partnerships to help organizations develop futures literacy and strategic capabilities. This approach supports improved anticipation, planning, and adaptation to emerging trends and challenges.

The Role of Foresight in Organisations

Using the Future focuses on enhancing organizational decision-making by exploring futures literacy and foresight vocabulary. With over 50 years of combined global experience, the team works across public, private, academic, and civic sectors, offering services such as advisory, talks, courses, and organizational training. The initiative supports improved strategic planning and futures thinking through reports, seminars, and partnerships, including the H3 AI Lab.

Using The Future

The organization offers advisory services, talks, courses, and training focused on unlocking the future of people and organizations. With over 50 years of combined global experience, they work across public, private, academic, and civic sectors. Their expertise covers HR trends, AI, policy, leadership, health, education, and urban development. Resources include reports, podcasts, seminars, and a futures lab, aiming to build foresight and futures literacy for impactful organizational and societal development.

Unlocking The Future of People & Organisations

EU leaders are set to address key issues, including financing for Ukraine and the next EU budget, in early 2026. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has historically threatened to obstruct these discussions but recently faced a shift in the European Council's tolerance for his actions. The informal norm of diffuse reciprocity among leaders, where goodwill is expected, has been strained by Orbán's pattern of systematic vetoing and leveraging crises for domestic political gain. With increased media scrutiny and rising political costs for his behavior, EU leaders rejected his tactics, leading to a hardening stance against Hungary as Orbán ultimately dropped his veto before negotiations commenced in February 2024.

When informal norms fail – how EU leaders lost their patience with Viktor Orbán

The G20 South Africa Summit highlighted the need for fairer global finance, particularly for African countries facing disproportionately high borrowing costs due to distorted perceptions. The 2025 Leaders’ Declaration acknowledged Africa's mounting debt burden and proposed mobilizing concessional financing to address financing constraints. However, it fell short of addressing the core issue: the high cost of capital driven by biased risk perceptions and structural distortions. The proposed Africa Credit Rating Agency aims to improve credit assessments by focusing on local realities, but comprehensive reforms are necessary to ensure equitable borrowing conditions.

Angola, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania | Health, Financial services

Fairer global finance starts with the G20

AI and generative AI are transforming financial inclusion by providing hyper-personalized financial guidance through tools like voice-first interfaces, alternative data credit scoring, and digital coaching. Despite increasing digital finance accessibility, 1.4 billion adults remain unbanked. AI promises to revolutionize personal financial well-being by delivering actionable insights, dynamic wealth planning, and empathetic nudges aimed at reducing financial stress. GenAI specifically addresses gaps in literacy and language, promoting inclusion for underserved populations, particularly in rural areas. Building trust and ethical practices is crucial as AI becomes integral to financial systems.

Education, Financial services

This is what the new frontier of AI-powered financial inclusion looks like

Sinking cities are facing potential economic losses of $8.17 trillion, with urgent action needed to mitigate flooding and land subsidence risks. Jakarta is sinking by up to 200mm annually, prompting a capital relocation. London ranks as the world's best city, excelling in liveability, lovability, and prosperity as highlighted in the 2026 World’s Best Cities Report. Notable developments include Manchester's £1 billion investment fund for housing and transport, Spain's high-speed rail enhancements, and Waymo's expansion of autonomous vehicle services across California.

Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Peru, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tanzania, United Kingdom | ICT, Education, Financial services

Sinking cities, the world's best cities – and other urban transformation stories to read

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