The answer may not always lie in the world's most powerful AI systems. Countries across the region are at very different stages of technological development. Some have advanced research capabilities and large digital economies, while others are still building data centres, digital networks, and a skilled workforce needed to make AI work at scale.

This is creating a new dimension of South-South cooperation. BRICS countries, with their diverse technological capabilities and development experiences, are increasingly developing and sharing AI technologies, expertise and applications with other emerging and developing economies.

Rather than simply transferring one-size-fits-all technologies, these efforts are being adapted to local infrastructure, economic conditions and development priorities.

The result is more about asking where AI can make the biggest difference.

Bringing medical expertise closer

Across much of the Global South, where medical resources are often concentrated in major cities, access to timely and quality healthcare can depend on where a person lives. For people in rural and remote areas, seeing a specialist may require travelling hundreds of kilometres, as local clinics may lack the equipment or expertise needed for an accurate diagnosis.

AI is beginning to offer a way to narrow this gap, helping extend medical expertise beyond the walls of well-equipped hospitals.

In China, Xunfei Healthcare has developed AI-powered tools that assist doctors with clinical decision-making, medical records and prescription reviews, and medical imaging.

The company is now taking some of these technologies abroad. In June, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Indonesia's PT DSST Mas Gemilang to deploy AI healthcare solutions, including AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment, public-health monitoring and medical imaging. The cooperation combines China's experience in large-scale AI applications with Indonesia's local infrastructure and healthcare needs.

Another similar form of South-South technology diffusion can be seen in India's Qure.ai . Its qXR system uses AI to analyse chest X-rays for signs of tuberculosis and other abnormalities. It has since been deployed in more than 60 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, helping healthcare workers identify patients who may require further testing in places where specialist radiologists are in short supply.

From satellites to early warnings

For communities on the front lines of climate change , a disaster often arrives faster than help can. Floods can sweep through farmland, storms can destroy homes, and droughts can wipe out crops before communities have time to respond. But AI is helping turn that early warning into a reality.

At this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, the China Meteorological Administration unveiled the MAZU-Fengyun Satellite AI Toolbox.

By combining satellite-data reception, AI inference and multi-source data fusion, the meteorological toolbox can help improve monitoring and early warning for extreme weather and other meteorological hazards.

Customised MAZU systems have already been deployed in seven countries, including Pakistan, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, helping countries vulnerable to floods, droughts and other extreme weather events strengthen their early-warning capabilities. More than 40 other countries are also accessing related MAZU services through cloud-based platforms.

Pakistani State Minister Bilal Bin Saqib said the MAZU Satellite AI Toolbox could provide smarter meteorological early-warning services for countries in the Global South, helping protect crops, strengthen food security and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Helping farmers make better decisions

For many countries in the Global South, agriculture accounts for a large share of economic activity. AI is offering farmers and agricultural researchers new ways to make better decisions, from how much fertiliser to apply to which seeds are most likely to survive a changing climate.

In Namibia, Chinese agricultural experts found that poor soil conditions and inappropriate fertiliser use were contributing to low agricultural productivity. To address the problem, they introduced a smart agricultural management system in 2025 that can generate tailored fertilisation plans after farmers enter information about their soil. The system has been described as an "agricultural navigator," offering farmers guidance based on the specific conditions of their land.

AI is also changing one of the most time-consuming stages of agriculture: cultivating better seeds.

Traditional seed selection can take eight to ten years of experimentation, followed by additional years of promotion before a new variety reaches farmers. AI can dramatically shorten this process by analysing large amounts of data quickly and more accurately.

Chen Xin, president of the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania, said AI can improve the precision of selecting seeds that are more resistant to pests, diseases and more tolerant of high temperatures. It can also help researchers identify promising combinations for hybridisation, accelerating the search for varieties suited to changing environmental conditions.

The technology is increasingly being adapted to local needs. In Thailand and Myanmar, for example, optimised bean varieties are being developed to better match local growing conditions and agricultural demands.

Financing AI-powered development

Technology alone cannot transform public services. AI systems need digital networks, computing infrastructure and other physical and institutional foundations, all of which require investment.

The New Development Bank (NDB), established by the BRICS countries in 2014 and beginning operations in 2015, provides financing for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS member countries and other emerging-market and developing economies. Its portfolio has increasingly included projects involving digital infrastructure and technology-driven public services.

In Brazil, the bank is supporting the development of a new generation of public healthcare infrastructure. Earlier this year, the NDB approved a $320 million loan for the first public smart hospital in São Paulo. The hospital is designed to combine advanced medical services with technologies including artificial intelligence, an AI-supported comprehensive diagnosis platform and online consultations.

For developing countries, the challenge is not only gaining access to AI technology, but also building the infrastructure and connected systems that allow that technology to be used at scale. By financing such projects, the NDB can help turn AI from an emerging technology into a tool embedded in essential public services.

During this year’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for countries to “carry out extensive international cooperation and help Global South countries with capacity building to bridge the AI and digital divides, promote sustainable development, and prevent creating new historical injustice in AI.”

He has also called for a consensus-based global governance framework “to make this frontier technology better benefit humanity.”

For countries across the Global South, this means more than gaining access to the latest AI models. Cooperation can help them share technologies, expertise and development experience while adapting AI solutions to local conditions.

For more than six billion people across the region, its success may be judged by a more immediate measure: whether AI can help deliver better healthcare, protect livelihoods, strengthen food security and give communities a better chance to prepare for the challenges ahead.

The article solely represents the views of Chen Ziqi, a Beijing-based journalist with CGTN, known for covering cross-cultural and international stories.

According to Slashgear , generating just one AI image consumes about 0.011 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. That might sound small, but it’s roughly the same amount of energy your refrigerator uses in four minutes.

To put it in perspective, a standard fridge running continuously for a full day consumes about 4 kWh, according to EnergySage .

That means every AI-generated picture carries a tangible, if tiny, environmental footprint, one that multiplies quickly when millions of images are created daily across platforms.

While a fridge hums quietly in the background, the servers powering AI models run at massive data centres, drawing electricity from grids that often rely on fossil fuels.

Slashgear notes that a single AI image may require dozens of processing steps from high-performance GPUs, each contributing to that energy cost.

Multiply this by the growing number of users experimenting with tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, or Stable Diffusion, and the numbers add up quickly.

Globally, the conversation around AI’s energy footprint is intensifying. The UN Environment Programme recently highlighted that as AI adoption accelerates, so does its electricity demand, raising concerns about sustainability and carbon emissions.

With major tech companies investing billions into generative AI, the race isn’t just about smarter models anymore; it’s also about greener ones.

On the surface, emotion-AI promises to make machines feel more human or at least respond in a more human-friendly way. Imagine a call centre where the system detects you’re frustrated and routes you to a human rep faster, or an online ad that senses you’re bored and serves something more engaging. That’s the appeal.

A report described how rail operators in the UK piloted AI cameras that attempted to read passengers’ emotions to improve satisfaction and retail revenue. From a commercial perspective, if a system can tell how you feel, then in theory it can tailor a response, product, or ad more effectively, which means more engagement, more time spent, and more money.

Emotion-AI isn’t just for advertising. Firms are exploring uses in healthcare (detecting pain or stress), education (measuring student engagement), automotive (monitoring driver alertness), and human resources (trying to screen for emotional “fit”). A recent review lays out this broad horizon of possibilities.

For example , in customer-service settings, emotion-AI promises to reduce wait times and tailor responses. But the same technology ends up raising major concerns, biased readings, privacy threats, and opaque decision-making.

Some emotion-AI systems misinterpret black faces as angrier, even when both black and white people are smiling. The accuracy varies widely depending on lighting, camera angle, cultural expression, and individual differences, meaning the risk of error is high. This matters especially when the tech is used in hiring, law enforcement or critical decision-making. Then there’s privacy. Collecting data on your emotional state — what you’re feeling, how you react- is deeply personal. In many cases, people don’t know it’s being collected or how it will be used.

The promise of emotionally aware machines is exciting, from better customer service to smarter health tools. But the risks are real: misinterpretation, bias, surveillance and manipulation.

The implications for autonomy, consent and human dignity are huge. For now, what matters most isn’t just whether the machine can read your emotions’s who controls those readings, how they’re used, and whether you have a say in it. As emotion-AI moves from sci-fi to reality, the need for open discussion, strong regulation and informed consent has never been more urgent.

According to Newzoo’s Global Mobile Market Report , the United States continues to lead the world in smartphone penetration, with 81.6% of its population owning a smartphone. Japan follows closely at 78.6%, with Russia at 73.6%, while China and Indonesia hover around 68%.

Brazil, Mexico, and much of Latin America are also seeing strong adoption, whereas India (46.5%), Nigeria (38.1%), and Pakistan (31%) still represent massive growth markets.

This growth in smartphone penetration is not just about device adoption but about how people access the internet.

Semrush reports that over 63% of global web traffic now comes from mobile devices, marking a decisive shift away from desktop browsing.

The company’s data also shows that most Google searches are initiated on mobile, a critical insight for marketers and businesses as they adapt their digital strategies.

Industry analysts see this expansion as part of a larger story about global connectivity. IDC’s Q2 2025 Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that smartphone shipments grew 1% year-over-year, reaching 295.2 million units despite sluggish demand in China and persistent economic headwinds.

The growth is being driven by affordable Android devices and increasing internet penetration in emerging markets.

However, in markets like India and Africa, cost remains a major barrier, meaning millions still rely on basic phones or shared devices. This creates unique opportunities for budget-friendly smartphone makers and mobile-first platforms.

Meanwhile, in mature markets like the U.S. and Japan, growth is driven by upgrades and demand for premium devices with AI-powered features, a trend that aligns with 2025’s push toward generative AI in everyday apps.

Fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime — must be about 2.1 births per woman to maintain population size without immigration.

New data reveal vast swaths of Europe, East Asia, and the Americas have rates far below this replacement threshold, while much of Sub-Saharan Africa has women having four, five, or even six children on average.

Globally, fertility has more than halved since the 1950s, when the average woman had around five children. Today, the global average is about 2.3, according to the UN’s World Population Prospects.

Even Latin America, which once had some of the world’s highest fertility rates, is now approaching sub-replacement levels. The United States sits around 1.6 , well below replacement, and countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Italy have dropped even lower, in some cases near or below 1.1 children per woman.

The implications are profound. Populations in countries with sustained low fertility begin to shrink, workforces contract, and the share of elderly citizens rises, putting pressure on pensions, healthcare systems, and economic growth. Italy reported just 370,000 births in 2024, the lowest in its history, leaving its fertility rate around 1.18.

Greece recently announced a €1.6 billion family support package in an effort to reverse its decline, warning that its population could fall below 8 million by 2050 if trends continue. Meanwhile, India, the world’s most populous country, has crossed a historic threshold, with its fertility rate now at 1.9, below replacement for the first time.

The Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Kazakhstan signed an MoU on the sidelines of the Astana Financial Conference to enhance cooperation in financial regulation, expertise exchange, and market infrastructure. The deal, signed by Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi, CEO of Oman’s Financial Services Authority, and Madina Abylkasimova, Head of Kazakhstan’s financial regulator, covers support for the ‘Tabadul’ platform to enable cross-market trading and boost regional integration. It also includes sharing regulatory expertise, joint research, capacity building, fintech collaboration, and initiatives in financial education and inclusion.

Omanis watch lunar eclipse in awe

Crowds gathered outside their homes and on rooftops to witness the total lunar eclipse on Sunday. The spectacle began with the penumbral phase at 7:28 pm Muscat time, followed by the partial eclipse at 8:27 pm, and reached its peak at 9:31 pm when the Moon was fully immersed in Earth’s shadow. For nearly an hour, the Moon glowed in deep crimson, a phenomenon popularly known as the “Blood Moon.” Unlike solar eclipses, which are harmful to view with the naked eye, lunar eclipses can be safely watched without special equipment. To mark the occasion, astronomers set up telescopes and large screens, allowing enthusiasts to enjoy the celestial event in greater detail.

Falaj project completed in Sur

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources has completed the rehabilitation of Falaj Al Jeela in Sur, South Al Sharqiyah. The falaj, one of five in Oman listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, underwent maintenance that included renovating the water collection area, a 150-metre open channel, and repairing damaged sections. Salah Salim Al Mahjari, Head of Dams, Aflaj and Protection Walls Division, noted that Oman’s aflaj represent not only water sources but also a historic and cultural heritage that sustained communities. Falaj Al Jeela, an eye falaj in Al Jeela village, stretches 415 metres and draws its water from the upper course of Wadi Al Shaab.

Proposal to establish a centre for artificial intelligence in Oman

The fourth symposium on security and safety in vital facilities wrapped up in Salalah after three days of presentations and knowledge exchange. Over 30 experts from Oman, the Gulf, Arab countries, and Europe presented research and shared real-world experiences, making the event a prominent annual platform for security and safety dialogue. The symposium addressed challenges, proposed solutions, and explored future trends. Key recommendations included establishing a regional AI centre in Oman, enhancing early warning systems in smart cities, promoting community resilience, protecting documents and archives, and adopting virtual simulations for emergency training. Brigadier General Eng. Saeed bin Suleiman Al-Asimi praised the symposium’s scientific approach and highlighted Oman’s readiness to become a regional hub for facility and AI safety.

Oman participates in 164th session of Arab Foreign Ministers Council in Cairo

Oman took part in the 164th session of the Arab Foreign Ministers’ Council in Cairo, led by Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al Harthy, Undersecretary for Political Affairs. The Council condemned Israeli actions in Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire, and urged unimpeded humanitarian aid. It also praised states recognizing Palestine, urged wider recognition, and reaffirmed rejection of interference in Arab affairs. The Council called for ending Israeli occupation, halting settlements, and placing all regional nuclear facilities under IAEA supervision to advance peace and security.