GAAN WEEKLY AI BRIEFING

For Members of the Global AI Advocates Network (GAAN) — Government Officials, NGO Leaders & Senior Policy Influencers

WEBINAR UPDATE

Webinar W007 on Digital Infrastructure — The Foundation that AI Needs was completed on Saturday 4 July 2026. A video on this topic will be uploaded soon to our YouTube channel @AIGrandad999.alanross and to our 10 language-specific channels (e.g. @AIGrandad999.alanross.Spanish, @AIGrandad999.alanross.Hindi, etc.), where there are now over 20 long and 12 short videos on each channel covering the AI and technology disruptions that will affect your country. We encourage you to view and share these with your networks and to ask them to subscribe so they are notified whenever a new video is uploaded.

Our next free webinar, W008, is planned for Saturday 18 July at 1pm Dublin on the topic: “SDG 2 — Zero Hunger: How Will AI Help Us Achieve This?” This will examine how AI-powered precision agriculture, early-warning systems for food crises and agricultural policy tools can help governments accelerate progress toward ending hunger, and what practical steps ministries can take now.

Register now: https://waaa.academy/registration-for-webinar/

THIS WEEK'S KEY DEVELOPMENTS

1. UN LAUNCHES THE AI FOR GOOD GLOBAL COMMISSION — GOVERNMENTS GIVEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE

On 2 July 2026 in Geneva, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff, and ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin launched the AI for Good Global Commission, bringing together more than 40 founding members — Heads of State and Government, industry CEOs, and Heads of UN agencies- to help define practical pathways to expand access to AI and strengthen trust in it. Founding members include the African Union’s Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, and government ministers from Namibia, Nigeria and Togo, alongside President Kagame. The Commission noted that 2.2 billion people worldwide remain offline- a quarter of humanity cut off from AI’s benefits. It holds its inaugural meeting during the ITU AI for Good Global Summit (7–10 July) in Geneva, alongside the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance (6–7 July).

Why this matters for GAAN members: This is the first UN-level AI governance body to seat developing-country government leaders alongside the CEOs building frontier AI- four of roughly 40 founding seats already went to African and government representatives. That is a template your own government can cite when arguing for a seat in global AI governance processes. With the Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the AI for Good Summit both under way in Geneva from 6 July, this is the moment to make sure your country’s voice is registered, directly or through regional blocs such as the African Union.

Source: Salesforce Newsroom — salesforce.com/news

2. GOOGLE CLOUD'S FIRST AFRICA SUMMIT: A NEW SUBSEA CABLE AND FURTHER $1BN+ COMMITMENT

At its inaugural Africa Summit in Johannesburg on 1 July 2026, Google Cloud unveiled five new initiatives layered on top of its existing $1 billion Africa commitment. The centrepiece is a new “Digital Exchange Port” connectivity hub in South Africa’s Eastern Cape- the first of four planned across the continent - linking Africa directly to Australia via the new Umoja subsea cable and opening a fresh route to India. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened proceedings, urging African governments to accelerate AI and cloud adoption, describing it as a “quantum leap into the future.” Google also announced an applied AI research lab opening in Accra and a new equity-free startup accelerator.

Why this matters for GAAN members: This is a live, current example of exactly the infrastructure gap our own W007 webinar (Digital Infrastructure- The Foundation that AI Needs) examined this week: without subsea cables, data centres and reliable power, national AI strategies remain aspirational documents rather than implementation plans. Use this announcement in discussions with your own ICT ministry- ask what your government is doing to attract similar hyper scaler infrastructure investment, and whether your country is positioned for Google’s next three planned connectivity hubs.

Source: Technext — technext24.com

3. UN SCIENTIFIC PANEL: AI IS OUTPACING GOVERNANCE — AND MOST OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH STILL HAS NO SEAT

Ahead of next week’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance, the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, co-chaired by Turing laureate Yoshua Bengio, published its first global assessment this week, warning that AI capabilities are advancing faster than the scientific understanding and governance frameworks needed to manage them. The assessment lands against a backdrop repeatedly flagged by UNCTAD: fewer than one-third of developing countries are meaningfully engaged in global AI governance discussions, and 118 countries — most in the Global South — remain excluded from shaping the international norms now being written.

Why this matters for GAAN members: The evidence base for urgency- and for developing-country participation- has never been stronger. Use this preliminary report and the UNCTAD exclusion figures directly in briefings to ministers ahead of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance (Geneva, 6–7 July) and the AI for Good Summit (7–10 July): the argument that “AI governance is being decided without us” is no longer speculative- it is documented by the UN’s own scientific panel and by UNCTAD.

Source: UN News — news.un.org; UNCTAD — unctad.org

Our next free webinar, W008, is planned for Saturday 18 July at 1pm Dublin on the topic: “SDG 2 — Zero Hunger: How Will AI Help Us Achieve This?”

Register now: https://waaa.academy/registration-for-webinar/

Not yet part of the Global AI Advocates Network? GAAN connects government officials, senior policymakers, NGO leaders and business leaders across 40+ countries with this free weekly briefing on the AI developments that matter most for national strategy, plus invitations to our twice-monthly webinars. Contact Alan to join our network to expand it to our target of at least 100 countries : alan.ross@global-ai.solutions

 >>> www.global-ai.solutions