Global roadmap launched to strengthen digital safety, and other digital technology stories you need to know

As digital platforms increasingly shape daily life, the risks of online harm, including misinformation and exploitation, continue to rise – issues recently spotlighted in the Netflix series Adolescence. To help organizations address these challenges, the World Economic Forum has released a guide outlining best practices for designing and implementing safety interventions.

Developed with a host of global experts, including platform providers, regulators and non-governmental organizations, The Intervention Journey: A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures provides a framework for businesses to help mitigate risks while ensuring safety is embedded in digital innovation. Protecting users (and non-users) across a wide range of digital technologies and reinforcing trust in online spaces requires collaboration and a cross-sector approach, it says.

The framework consists of four steps:

“The digital world is evolving rapidly, and so too must our approach to digital safety,” note two contributors to the report, Adam Hildreth, Founder of Crisp and Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner, in a recent article for Forum Stories. “Ensuring platforms prioritize digital safety is a collective effort – one that requires proactive planning, continuous adaptation, and a commitment to collaboration across sectors.”

In response to growing threats, Microsoft is launching 11 AI cybersecurity agents capable of autonomously identifying and analyzing suspicious emails, blocking attempted hacks and gathering intelligence on where attacks originate.

These agents are part of the company’s broader initiative to use AI to combat cybercrime at scale.

Hacking by criminals, fraudsters and spy agencies has reached a level of “unprecedented complexity", Microsoft's VP of Security, Vasu Jakkal said recently. Speaking with Sky News, she warned: “There’s no way any human can keep up with the volume.”

She also revealed that the tech firm had tracked 30 billion phishing emails last year, acknowledging "an increase in the scale, the speed and the sophistication of attacks”.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 ranks cyber espionage and warfare as the fifth most severe threat faced by the world in the next two years, and ninth over the next decade.

China is urging banks to boost credit and medium- to long-term loans for tech companies, with working capital loans extended up to five years. The move is part of efforts to support technology development amid concerns over economic growth and rising geopolitical tensions with the US, according to Reuters.

Nvidia detailed some of the capabilities of its upcoming artificial intelligence chips at its annual GPU Technology Conference in California. The Blackwell Ultra NVL72 AI chips, set for release in late 2025, will offer enhanced memory and bandwidth to accelerate AI platform development, physical AI technology and reasoning models.

Spanish technology start-up Neurologyca claims its Kopernica AI system can assess human emotions and detect a range of neurological conditions, even analyzing multiple people at once.

Fashion retailer H&M is set to create digital "twins" of 30 models who have given their consent. These "AI doppelgangers" will be used in place of humans in some social media posts and marketing, prompting concerns that the move could diminish opportunities in the industry, the BBC reports.

The UK government’s roll-out of AI across its IT systems could be threatened by outdated technology, a Commons committee has warned. The latest cross-party Public Accounts Committee report finds that “too often Government data are of poor quality, and often locked away in out-of-date, or ‘legacy’, IT systems”.

With 4.5 billion people lacking access to essential healthcare services, artificial intelligence could help bridge that gap. Read this article to see how AI technologies are already helping doctors spot fractures, triage patients and detect early signs of disease.

Traceability technologies can help achieve a circular plastics economy through transparency, accountability and material recycling. However, insufficient funding, regulatory uncertainty, data infrastructure issues and difficulties in scaling up could prevent innovations in this area meeting their potential. See why partnerships, data standards and regulatory clarity are crucial for scaling traceability and driving investment in this article.

Spatial technology has the potential to extend computing beyond screens, change the way we communicate and interact with technology. In this episode of the Meet The Leader podcast, Future Dynamics founder and spatial computing expert Cathy Hackl shares what to expect and what's needed to scale this field further.