World Economic Forum

About half of the world’s 7,000 languages are under threat - and especially its Indigenous languages, which are disappearing at a rate of one a fortnight. Māori media company Te Hiku Media has taken a 21st-century approach to stopping the slide. Here, as CEO Peter-Lucas Jones explains, it built an AI to help transcribe 30 years of Māori-language archival recordings, in which Indigenous elders passed down their priceless knowledge and customs. To create the tool, Te Hiku launched a reading competition among native speakers, tagging and labelling each piece of phonetic data to build a database that outperforms every big tech Māori LLM on the planet. A World Economic Forum report offers 9 scalable actions for devising AI systems that maximize benefits while minimizing risks to people, society and the environment. You can read it here: https://ow.ly/7UuH50Xz9qG"

In a more dynamic world, it is increasingly important for #organizations to understand, manage and prepare for emerging risks. But what are those #risks? We asked members of the Chief Risk Officers Community to share some thoughts on this question and to tell us what makes them optimistic for the road ahead as we approach 2026. Read more from Grace Atkinson: https://lnkd.in/eyuSvvN3

#Copenhagen is enlisting an unusual ally in the fight to protect itself from ever-increasing rainfall: its parks. Many of the city’s historic green spaces have been retrofitted with channels, pools, levees and underground reservoirs - such as the neoclassical 1929 Enghaveparken, which now holds 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools of rainwater runoff underground in a hidden chamber. Preparing for and collecting this water has a number of advantages: as well as protecting the city from devastating #floods, the reservoirs can supply city utilities, feed plants and flowers and even provide water features where citizens can gather and play. It’s all part of Copenhagen’s bid to transform itself into the world’s first fully fledged sponge city. The Davos Baukultur Alliance champions sustainable and climate-resilient urban development by encouraging circular methods in the construction and management of buildings, infrastructure and public spaces. You can read more about it here: https://ow.ly/OheB50X0jQ8

The Belém Health Action Plan has been launched at #COP30, marking 'a milestone in making adaptation of the health sector a priority through a roadmap for countries to build resilient health systems and accelerate global cooperation'. So far, $300 million has been pledged to the initiative. Read this, and other top #health and #healthcare stories from the past fortnight in this roundup from the World Economic Forum's Shyam Bishen, Ph.D., MS, MBA here: https://lnkd.in/e-g55nMi

Language #skills can transform lives. Here's how one project is teaching #English to children in Saudi Arabia – and, more recently, Tanzania – to provide a path to self-sufficiency: https://lnkd.in/ewkennUF

In South Sudan, what began as temporary, life-saving camps has become a long-term limbo. It's time to shift our collective focus from #emergency relief to supporting the transition towards recovery and #stability, argues Anita Kiki Gbeho of the United Nations: https://lnkd.in/eNgudRcQ

From garment workers in Bangladesh who sew through 14-hour shifts to Congolese cobalt miners digging with bare hands, human rights violations in global #supply chains persist despite years of reform. Many multinationals promise supply chains free of violations, yet most can’t see past the first-tier suppliers. The people most affected remain unseen and violations go unaddressed. Even in corporate initiatives to improve human rights, the people who understand local conditions best, activists and community groups, are rarely included in decision-making. Partnerships between multinationals and large NGOs often look participatory but fall short of real change. As one civil society representative told us, “We get audited, but we never get asked.” Marc Oberhauser and Dr. Myriam Rapior explain why locally grounded governance is the most reliable way to protect the dignity, rights and livelihoods of the people who make global business possible: https://lnkd.in/eK86dgmk #wef26

New AI #agents are being released to help shoppers research, compare and purchase goods online. But with this shift comes opportunity and risk. In this month's roundup of #AI insights from the World Economic Forum's Cathy Li, we look at the latest developments, new research into the #technology as well as updates to its governance: https://lnkd.in/ewnhyjeQ

#Caregivers in Hong Kong struggle to balance work, family, and looking after elderly relatives, with one in three reporting high stress levels. This is compounded by the fact that nearly a third of these caregivers are over 60 themselves and often lack #digital skills to avail of technological solutions that could offer them support. UpLink Venture Agewhale is working to bridge the ‘grey digital divide’. Their AI-powered mobile app identifies home safety risks by scanning interiors with a smartphone camera, then uses a chatbot to suggest adjustments, and also provides access to #eldercare resources and information. A partnership between UpLink, Manulife and the World Economic Forum's Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems, the Global Longevity Innovation Initiative is bringing together early-stage entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts and policy makers from across the #longevity economy to accelerate innovation for healthier, more financially resilient and fulfilled lives for all: https://ow.ly/EAXL50XyY91

The availability of #data is what defines which industries are most disrupted by #AI. Job-seekers in transforming sectors must focus on opportunities that combine #tech capabilities with human judgement and business needs. Read more from Atul Kumar: https://lnkd.in/exmkGuHx