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Webinar Update
Webinar W005 on the AI Skills Crisis was completed on Saturday 30 May 2026. The video on this topic will be uploaded soon on YouTube channel @AIGrandad999.alanross and to our 10 language-specific channels (e.g. @AIGrandad999.alanross.Spanish, @AIGrandad999.alanross.Hindi, etc.) where there are videos on many other important topics of interest to those in the developing world. These videos show how you can not only survive but thrive when the AI Tsunami hits your country and how your countries can prepare to minimise problems and maximise benefits. We encourage you to view and share these with your networks and ask them to visit and subscribe to the relevant language channels so they can be notified every time a new video is uploaded.
Our next free webinar, W006, is planned for Saturday 20 June on the topic: "The Brain Drain Crisis - Keeping AI Talent at Home." This will highlight current trends and what some countries are doing to retain talent and to attract the diaspora back home to help build their countries. It also shows the major opportunities for AI entrepreneurs and why this is an issue requiring urgent government attention.
Global Policy & Development
1. WORLD BANK WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2026: AI COULD EITHER LEAPFROG OR DEEPEN THE DIVIDE
The World Bank recently released the concept Note outlining expected contents of World Development Report 2026: Decoding AI for Development — the most authoritative analysis of AI's implications for developing countries that will be published soon. The concept note highlights genuine opportunities: AI can help LMICs overcome long-standing market failures, including using AI algorithms to assess creditworthiness from digital footprints (enabling loans to people previously excluded from formal banking), using AI to fill healthcare and education skills gaps where trained professionals are scarce, and using AI to optimise logistics and production in sectors like agriculture and manufacturing. However, the concept Note is equally frank about risks: AI requires onerous computing power, data and skills that most LMICs lack; disruption may arrive faster than productivity gains; and the best jobs in lower-income economies — clerical, administrative, and professional roles — are the most exposed to AI-driven displacement.
Why this matters and Opportunities for IAAD members: This is the policy environment your products are being built into. AI tools that help workers in clerical and administrative roles augment their productivity- rather than replace them - are exactly what LMIC markets need most urgently. AI developers who understand this opportunity and build accordingly will find both government support and large addressable markets. The report will also result in increased donor and government funding for AI capacity-building- an environment in which IAAD members' solutions will find receptive buyers.
Global / Developing World Adoption
2. CHATGPT HITS ONE BILLION MONTHLY USERS — THE DEVELOPING WORLD IS LEADING ADOPTION GROWTH
OpenAI confirmed this week that ChatGPT has surpassed one billion monthly active users - making it the fastest application in history to reach this milestone, outpacing Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Google Maps. The data behind this milestone is critical for IAAD members: adoption growth in the lowest-income countries has been more than four times faster than in the highest-income countries. The Philippines ranked sixth globally in ChatGPT adoption, with 42% of internet users having used it in the past month. ChatGPT's revenue also hit a $47 billion annualised run rate. For AI developers building in emerging markets, the user base you are targeting is already large and growing faster than anywhere else on Earth.
Why this matters and Opportunities for IAAD members: A billion monthly users means the distribution problem for AI tools is substantially solved. Consumers in Africa, Asia and Latin America are already comfortable using AI chatbots. The opportunity for IAAD developers is to build on top of this comfort: products and services that extend AI capability into local languages, local use cases, and local markets. The barrier to adoption is now lower than it has ever been.
Source: Reuters / American Bazaar Online |
americanbazaaronline.com
Global Policy & Regulation
3. WHITE HOUSE AI EXECUTIVE ORDER: VOLUNTARY SECURITY FRAMEWORK AND GLOBAL RIPPLE EFFECTS
US President Trump signed an executive order on 2 June 2026 — 'Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security'. This explicitly promotes US AI leadership while establishing a voluntary cybersecurity framework for frontier AI models. Key provisions: an AI Cybersecurity Clearinghouse to identify and remediate software vulnerabilities at scale, a voluntary 30-day government review period for frontier AI models before public release, and an explicit prohibition on any mandatory government licensing or permitting for AI development. The order reflects a US policy philosophy of accelerating AI deployment while resisting regulatory bottlenecks.
Why this matters and Opportunities for IAAD members: US regulatory philosophy matters for LMIC developers because it shapes what tools, APIs and infrastructure you can access from US providers. The voluntary rather than mandatory framework means that frontier model APIs (from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) will continue to be openly available without regulatory gatekeeping. The cybersecurity clearinghouse is also important: as AI agents are increasingly deployed in sensitive sectors (health, finance, government), security standards will become a prerequisite for enterprise contracts. IAAD members building agent solutions should begin incorporating security-by-design principles now.
Source: White House |
whitehouse.gov / Inside Privacy
Africa & Asia | Healthcare & AI Investment
4. GATES FOUNDATION EVAH INITIATIVE: $60M TO EVALUATE AI HEALTH TOOLS IN AFRICA AND ASIA
The Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome this week launched the Evidence for AI in Health (EVAH) initiative — a $60 million fund to support locally-led evaluations of AI clinical decision support tools in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. EVAH targets tools that assist frontline health workers with triage, diagnosis, and referral in primary and community healthcare settings. Two grant pathways are open: up to $1 million for early-stage deployment evaluation (usability, workflow integration, safety) and up to $3 million for rigorous impact evaluations at deployment scale. All findings are open access.
Why this matters and Opportunities for IAAD members: Healthcare AI is one of the highest-impact development sectors — and EVAH is explicitly funding evaluations of tools 'ready for real-world use.' IAAD developers who have already built or are building AI tools for frontline health workers should investigate whether their tools qualify for EVAH evaluation funding. This is not development aid — it is evaluation funding that creates evidence-based pathways to government procurement and scale deployment. The EVAH call is also open to academic partners- IAAD developers can consider collaborating with university research teams in EVAH-eligible countries.
Source: Gates Foundation |
gatesfoundation.org / Wellcome / J-PAL
Global | AI Investment & Infrastructure
5. ANTHROPIC RAISES $65 BILLION — AI INVESTMENT AT HISTORIC SCALE
Anthropic raised $65 billion in Series H funding this week at a post-money valuation of $965 billion — overtaking OpenAI as the most valuable private AI company in the world. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, with co-investors including Capital Group, GIC Singapore, Temasek, Blackstone, and Fidelity. Anthropic's annualised revenue had already crossed $47 billion prior to this round. The company cited plans to expand compute infrastructure, advance safety research, and scale products and partnerships globally. Anthropic also teased its forthcoming 'Mythos' model expected in coming weeks.
Why this matters and Opportunities for IAAD members: This level of investment signals that the AI infrastructure layer will continue expanding rapidly, making API access both more capable and (historically) more cost-competitive over time. For IAAD developers, the key message is strategic: the major AI labs are not slowing down. Claude, GPT, Gemini and their successors will become exponentially more capable over the next 12-24 months. Developers who are learning these APIs and building on them now will be positioned to leverage each capability improvement immediately. Do not wait for AI to 'stabilise' before building — build now, upgrade as capabilities improve.
Source: Anthropic |
anthropic.com/news/series-h / TechCrunch
