The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, from virtual assistants [Kepuska and Bohouta, 2018] to recommendation engines [Gomez-Uribe and Hunt, 2015] and autonomous vehicles [Shladover, 2018], has reshaped human-machine interaction. Y et, African languages, with over 2,000 spoken across the continent [Eberhard et al., 2023], remain severely underrepresented in NLP due to their low-resource status [Ahia and Boakye, 2023, Nekoto et al., 2020]. This exclusion risks exacerbating the digital divide, limiting access to AI-driven services in critical domains like education, healthcare, and governance [Ndichu et al., 2024, Joshi et al., 2020]. Shona, a Bantu language spoken by millions in Zimbabwe and southern Zambia, exemplifies this challenge. Existing Shona corpora primarily consist of formal texts, such as news articles or religious documents [Eberhard et al., 2023], while everyday communication, particularly among younger speakers, is dominated by slang, code-mixing with English, and informal expressions [Eisenstein, 2013]. Standard NLP models, trained on formal data, struggle to process these dynamic linguistic patterns, hindering the development of culturally relevant conversational AI.

Current language processing technologies allow the creation of conversational chatbot platforms. Even though artificial intelligence is still too immature to support satisfactory user experience in many mass market domains, conversational interfaces have found their way into ad hoc applications such as call centres and online shopping assistants. However, they have not been applied so far to social inclusion of elderly people, who are particularly vulnerable to the digital divide. Many of them relieve their loneliness with traditional media such as TV and radio, which are known to create a feeling of companionship. In this paper we present the EBER chatbot, designed to reduce the digital gap for the elderly. EBER reads news in the background and adapts its responses to the user's mood. Its novelty lies in the concept of "intelligent radio", according to which, instead of simplifying a digital information system to make it accessible to the elderly, a traditional channel they find familiar -- background news -- is augmented with interactions via voice dialogues. We make it possible by combining Artificial Intelligence Modelling Language, automatic Natural Language Generation and Sentiment Analysis. The system allows accessing digital content of interest by combining words extracted from user answers to chatbot questions with keywords extracted from the news items. This approach permits defining metrics of the abstraction capabilities of the users depending on a spatial representation of the word space. To prove the suitability of the proposed solution we present results of real experiments conducted with elderly people that provided valuable insights. Our approach was considered satisfactory during the tests and improved the information search capabilities of the participants.

Did you know that Bangladeshi girls and boys won four gold medals at the International Robot Olympiad (IRO) last month? Since 1999, girls and boys from around the world have been competing here every year with their amazing ideas and the robots they build. In 2021, Team Bangladesh won four gold, two silver, five bronze, and four technical medals at the IRO. This is an achievement that should encourage many more youngsters to enter the amazing world of robotics. As a nation, we should be proud and assured that amid myriad problems, we are producing intelligent youngsters--our first robot builders.

In 1900, at the Paris Conference of the International Congress of Mathematicians at the Sorbonne, David Hilbert enumerated 23 open mathematical questions and set an agenda for a broad range of studies that continue to influence modern mathematics today. Since then, scientists in other disciplines, such as astrophysics and biology, have followed Hilbert's example: They periodically undertake so-called "decadal studies" in which the research community surveys unsolved questions in their specialties and tries to identify the most important and useful ones to pursue in the upcoming decade. Decadal studies can inspire research that changes the nature of their fields, including the construction of instruments needed to find scientific answers. For instance, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a sensitive detector for measuring gravitational waves, was a direct result of the 2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal study. Another incredible scientific tool inspired by a decadal study is the soon-to-launch James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to see the formation of the earliest galaxies and even analyze the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets in our galaxy.

Melissa Sassi is the Chief Penguin of IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator. Yes, she created her own penguin title! Melissa works with early stage entrepreneurs on digital and business transformation. Have you heard of Call for Code? It's an IBM initiative aimed at preparing for and responding to climate change via tech innovation.

There are about one billion people living with disability around the world. In the United States, 61 million Americans live with some form of disability. Unfortunately, despite their significant numbers, efforts to ensure that they have equal access to spaces, utilities, and services remain lacking. Take technology and the internet, for example. Disabled people typically need assistive devices and applications to use computers.

At IGF 2019, several policy initiatives, reports, and publications were launched or used as background material for discussions.

As many as one billion people--15 per cent of the world's population--have some form of disability, with around three per cent suffering from severe disabilities, according to World Bank. For most of these people, accessing modern technology and all it has to offer presents a host of difficulties. Even something as simple as using a cell phone can be impossible. Global Accessibility Awareness Day (May 16) aims to combat that. Launched in 2015, the day is designed to get everyone thinking and talking about improving digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities.

Besides artificial intelligence, FutureSkills will also focus on new age technologies such as Virtual Reality, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data Analytics, 3D Printing, Cloud Computing, Social and Mobile. While Digital India is working on steps to increase domestic electronic production and BPO promotion schemes for employment, this platform will make talent available for India and the tech industry to embrace opportunities from emerging technologies, said Nasscom. NASSCOM has conducted a comprehensive study with the Boston Consulting Group to identify 8 technologies, poised to grow tremendously, both nationally and globally, in the coming decade, along with associated 55 job roles and corresponding skills required for those technologies. The FutureSkills platform will enable discovery, continuous learning and a marketplace of best-in-class training providers/virtual labs and certifications for each of these job roles and skills, with customised pathways for learning. PM Modi applauded the initiative and its focus on creating skills for future jobs in the country.

The UK government is due to publish its long awaited Digital Strategy later today, about a year later than originally slated. Existing delays having been compounded by the shock of Brexit. Drafts of the strategy framework seen by TechCrunch suggest its scope and ambition vis-a-vis digital technologies has been pared back and repositioned vs earlier formulations of the plan, dating from December 2015 and June 2016, as the government recalibrated to factor in last summer's referendum vote for the UK to leave the European Union. Since the earlier drafts were penned there has also of course been a change of leadership (and direction) at the top of government. And Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a new cabinet, including digital minister, Matt Hancock, who replaced Ed Vaizey.