Page 66 - The Annual AI Governance Report 2025 Steering the Future of AI

The Annual AI Governance Report 2025: Steering the Future of AI

Dive deeper in the Whitepaper “Themes and Trends in AI Governance”:

• 6.4 Open Source and Open Weight AI: Trajectories, Debates, and Global
Practices Pillars Chapter 2: Ten

2.4 Bridging Inclusion

The principle of inclusion goes beyond access – it is about meaningful participation in governance.
Many participants warned of the risk that the Global South, and especially indigenous and
rural communities, are sidelined in shaping AI standards and priorities. If global governance
frameworks do not intentionally amplify these voices, AI risks entrenching historical inequities.

H.E. Ms. Tatenda Annastacia Mavetera (Minister of Information Communication Technology,
Postal and Courier Services, Zimbabwe) emphasized a national philosophy of "leaving no
one and no place behind" when bridging the AI divide, particularly between urban and rural
areas. Zimbabwe's approach, encapsulated by "PSL & I²," focuses on Participation and Privacy,
Skills (upskilling/reskilling), Leadership (political will and sound policies) and Legislation (AI
framework and strategy), along with developing local AI solutions. [Editor: Ms Mavetera was
not explicit about the acronym I², but it may stand for Infrastructure and Innovation (through
local solutions)].

H.E. Mr. Hubert Vargas Picado (Vice Minister, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación, Tecnología
y Telecomunicaciones, Costa Rica) framed bridging the AI divide as a matter of equity and
closing structural development gaps. Despite 85% connectivity, AI use is much lower. Costa
Rica's national AI strategy, launched 10 months ago and co-created with over 50 institutions and
aligned with OECD’s AI principles, prioritizes digital inclusion for rural communities, indigenous
people, and youth through programs like community innovation labs and smart community
centers that provide basic AI literacy. Mr Vargas Picado hoped for a more multilingual AI with
reduced biases (e.g., gender) and greater global integration and cooperation in decision-
making.

Inclusion also means linguistic representation: most large language models are still trained
predominantly in English and a few major languages, leaving thousands of languages invisible.
Participants described this as a form of cultural exclusion. Building multilingual AI systems was
described as a priority for ensuring that AI reflects, rather than erases, human diversity.

Jūratė Šovienė (Chair of the Council, The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic
of Lithuania) identified two prerequisites for bridging the AI divide: digital infrastructure
(strengthening resilience, higher quality services, and fiber to every household by 2030
through a holistic approach integrating fiber with road and electricity networks) and digital
skills. She categorized people into "digital natives," "digital immigrants" (who find digital tools
interesting), and a large group of "digital refugees" (mostly aging populations who find digital
tools scary and untrustworthy). She advocated seeing this gap as an opportunity to discover
new citizens, customers, and employees, urging combined forces to ensure no one is excluded
from digital life.

Emmy Lou Versoza-Delfin (Director, Department of Information and Communications
Technology – Philippines) outlined the Philippines' inclusive approach for its more than

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