The UN Office in Vienna opened the AI for Developing Countries Forum on July 17, 2024, under the theme "Fair AI for a Fair World," bringing together speakers including Tianze Zhang, Andrea A. Jacobs, Dr. Wendy O’Brien of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ana Paula Nishio de Sousa of UNIDO, and Ambassador Magdi Ahmed Mofadal Elnour.
Sessions covered AI's role in sustainable development, questions of data sovereignty, how to democratise AI access in emerging economies, governance frameworks for the Global South, and the federated data infrastructure needed to support them.
The forum's organisers framed the gathering as part of a wider push to close digital divides between developed and developing nations, and to keep the ethical questions raised by rapid AI adoption from being decided without input from the countries most affected. A third edition of the forum has been announced for 2025.