Governance and Regulation

AI at Davos 2026: From work impact to Europe’s place. Here’s what the tech leaders hope and fear

(Pascale Davies – Euronews) The CEO of Nvidia, Microsoft, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, as well as philosopher Yuval Harari, have set out their visions and fears for AI at Davos. Artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated nearly every conversation at Davos 2026, rivalling the prominence of traditional hot-button issues such as trade tariffs, international competition, and geopolitical tensions. Last year at Davos, the Chinese company DeepSeek sparked a frenzy when it launched its AI model and chatbot that the company claimed was cheaper and performed just as well as OpenAI’s rival ChatGPT model. However, this year, discussions on AI have widened to include how it is being implemented, the risks the technology carries, and its impact on work and society. – https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/01/20/ai-at-davos-2026-from-work-to-useful-and-safe-ai-heres-what-the-tech-leaders-have-said

UNESCO Statement on Internet Shutdowns

(UNESCO) UNESCO calls on governments to ensure that citizens exercise their democratic rights, more so in times of crisis, through the internet and other online platforms. UNESCO has reported a growing trend of state-sponsored internet shutdowns in recent years, with at least 300 internet shutdowns in over 54 countries over the last two years; 2024 was  the worst year on record since 2016, according to Access Now. Since the beginning of 2026, blanket internet shutdowns have been imposed in countries experiencing major protests or in the middle of electoral processes. – https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-statement-internet-shutdowns?hub=701

Commission strengthens EU cybersecurity resilience and capabilities

(European Commission) Europe faces daily cyber and hybrid attacks on essential services and democratic institutions, carried out by sophisticated state and criminal groups. The European Commission has proposed a new cybersecurity package to further strengthen the EU’s cybersecurity resilience and capabilities in the face of these growing threats. The package includes a proposal for a revised Cybersecurity Act, which enhances the security of the EU’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) supply chains. It ensures that products reaching EU citizens are cyber-secure by design through a simpler certification process. It also facilitates compliance with existing EU cybersecurity rules and reinforces the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) in supporting Member States and the EU in managing cybersecurity threats. – https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_105

Current approach to AI in financial services risks serious harm to consumers and wider system

(UK Parliament) The Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Treasury are exposing the public and the financial system to potentially serious harm due to their current positions on the use of artificial intelligence in financial services, according to a new report by the Treasury Select Committee. – https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/211401/current-approach-to-ai-in-financial-services-risks-serious-harm-to-consumers-and-wider-system/

Anthropic, Google and Microsoft fight to win teachers

(Megan Morrone – Axios) The next major AI battleground is the classroom, as Google, Microsoft and Anthropic race to make their tools the chatbots of choice for teachers and students. Why it matters: Whoever wins schools now could shape how Gen Alpha learns, studies and interacts with AI for years to come. – https://www.axios.com/2026/01/21/google-anthropic-microsoft-education

Geostrategies

Tech Edge: A Living Playbook for America’s Technology Long Game

(Navin Girishankar, Mark P. Dallas, Sree Ramaswamy, Scott Kennedy, Philip Luck, Joseph Majkut, Ilaria Mazzocco, Erin L. Murphy, Matt Pearl, Richard M. Rossow, Sujai Shivakumar, Chris Borges, Ray Cai, and Ryan Featherston – CSIS) China is often portrayed as either unstoppable—dominating electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, and solar panels—or lacking the creativity to push the technological frontier. The United States is either celebrated as the unquestioned AI leader or criticized for losing its manufacturing base and becoming dangerously dependent on rivals. The reality is more complex—and more instructive. In 2025, China made AI progress under chip constraints, achieved breakthroughs in robotics and quantum computing, and weaponized its control of rare earth processing, yet it still cannot produce a certified jet engine or compete in high-end machine tools. The United States controls 90 percent of AI chip markets and produces far more advanced AI models than China, yet it has lost much of the manufacturing capacity needed to build at scale and depends on rivals for critical materials. These patterns cannot just be explained by looking at research and development (R&D) budgets or patent counts. The answer is technological dexterity—the ability to build strengths across different technology types, where advantages in one domain compound advantages in others. AI chips enable AI models, rare earth processing enables chip manufacturing, and machine tools enable precision aerospace components. These technologies reinforce each other, but only when the right ecosystems support them. The urgency is real: China has been playing the long game for decades—systematically building processing capacity in rare earths, scaling manufacturing ecosystems, and investing in the “missing middle” between lab and market—while the United States has too often lost focus on the ecosystem foundations that make technological leadership durable. Success depends on whether America can rebuild these capabilities faster than China continues compounding its advantages. – https://www.csis.org/analysis/tech-edge-living-playbook-americas-technology-long-game

Korea, Italy agree to deepen ties in AI, chips, space and beyond

(Ji Da-gyum – The Korea Herald) South Korea and Italy agreed on Monday to deepen cooperation in high-tech sectors, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and aerospace, while expanding ties in the defense industry and critical-mineral supply chains. The two sides also reaffirmed a shared commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The agreement came as President Lee Jae Myung met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — the first Italian prime minister to visit South Korea in 19 years — for a summit at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul. – https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10658379

Security and Surveillance

Phishing and Spoofed Sites Remain Primary Entry Points For Olympics

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A new assessment of cyber risks facing the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games has highlighted phishing and spoofed websites as the most common initial access points for attackers targeting global sporting events. The findings have been detailed in Palo Alto Networks’ Cyber Threats to Milan-Cortina 2026 report, which examined how criminal groups, state-backed actors and hacktivists are likely to exploit the Games’ vast digital footprint. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/phishing-spoofed-sites-olympic/

Experts Welcome Global Cybersecurity Vulnerability Enumeration Launch

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) A new community-driven, European-headquartered alternative to the US-led Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program has been welcome by security experts. The open source Global Cybersecurity Vulnerability Enumeration (GCVE) initiative brings together vulnerability information from over 25 public sources. These include GCVE Numbering Authorities (GNAs), which are able to allocate and publish vulnerability identifiers independently. “By enabling GNAs and other publishers to contribute data independently, while still benefiting from global correlation, GCVE aims to reduce single points of failure and foster innovation in vulnerability management,” the GCVE said. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-cybersecurity-vulnerability/

Report Fraud Promises to Streamline Fight Against Economic Crime

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) A new national fraud reporting service has launched in the UK, promising to transform how businesses and individuals notify law enforcement about offenses, and how police respond. Report Fraud replaces the much-maligned Action Fraud service. Run, like its predecessor, by City of London Police, it covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Action Fraud was widely criticized by victims as “not fit for purpose” – with unprofessional staff, slow response times and a failure to investigate reports or provide updates. However, the new service aims to provide a more sophisticated, user-friendly and effective mechanism for fraud reporting, via a “single, modern national reporting, triage and intelligence platform.” – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/report-fraud-fight-against/

Risk of AI Model Collapse to Drive Zero Trust Data Governance, Gartner Says

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) The proliferation of AI data, evolving regulatory requirements and risk of  large language model (LLM) collapse will help to drive take up of zero trust approaches to data governance in the next two years, Gartner has claimed. The analyst firm warned that as books, code repositories, research papers and other sources start to feature more AI-generated content, future LLMs that scrape these sources will effectively be trained on outputs from previous models. That in turn could hasten a decline in model quality and accuracy, and an increase in hallucinations and bias. In response to the surge in unverified AI data, as many as half of global organizations will turn to zero trust data governance, predicted Gartner. Regulators will also increase their scrutiny in this area, the analyst claimed. “As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, regulatory requirements for verifying ‘AI-free’ data are expected to intensify in certain regions,” said Gartner managing VP, Wan Fui Chan. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ai-model-collapse-zero-trust-data/

Peruvian Loan Scam Harvests Cards and PINs via Fake Applications

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A large-scale loan phishing operation in Peru has been uncovered, showing how cybercriminals are abusing fake loan applications to steal valid card numbers and PIN codes from unsuspecting users. Active since 2024, the campaign impersonates well-known financial institutions and relies on polished social engineering to appear trustworthy from start to finish. According to new findings by Group-IB, the depth of validation built into the scam is particularly concerning. Rather than collecting data indiscriminately, the infrastructure filters out low-quality entries and focuses only on usable financial credentials. The researchers have identified at least 16 scam domains posing as a leading Peruvian bank and around 370 unique domains overall linked to the operation. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/loan-scam-harvests-cards-pins/

VoidLink Linux Malware Was Built Using an AI Agent, Researchers Reveal

(Danny Palmer – Infosecurity Magazine) VoidLink, the recently discovered Linux malware which targets Linux-based cloud servers, was likely almost entirely generated by AI, researchers have said. First detailed by cybersecurity analysts at Check Point last week, the new malware is made up of over 30 modular plugins and is designed to maintain long-term access to Linux systems. It was initially believed that the sophistication and modular nature of VoidLink and the way it was developed at rapid pace pointed to the malware being the work of a well-resourced, experienced cybercriminal operation. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/voidlink-linux-malware-built-using/

Frontiers and Markets

New ‘recipes’ for accelerating chemistry discoveries – with a dash of AI

(Jim Shelton – Yale News) Speeding up drug discovery in the age of AI may come down to a concept that’s comfortingly old-fashioned: Consulting a chemistry recipe book. It makes perfect sense. Designing a new synthetic molecule has always been a daunting, time-consuming endeavor — made even more challenging by the sheer amount of new research by scientists worldwide. Nearly every week there are innovative new discoveries, protocols, best practices, and shortcuts that can be brought to bear on any given step in a new chemical synthesis, assuming a researcher is aware of them. – https://news.yale.edu/2026/01/19/new-recipes-accelerating-chemistry-discoveries-dash-ai#:~:text=MOSAIC%2C%20developed%20at%20Yale%2C%20is,of%20chemistry%2C%20including%20drug%20design.