Exclusive: UN agency tests alternative to major cloud giants

Axios has reported that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is partnering with the DFINITY Foundation on a new initiative focused on sovereign AI and cloud infrastructure.

The goal is to help governments build and test AI-powered applications while maintaining greater control over their data and infrastructure, rather than being dependent on major foreign cloud providers.

A few highlights:

• Five countries will be selected for the initial pilots, with participants expected from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

• Each participating government will identify a real-world problem or need and work with UNDP and DFINITY to build and test a solution using DFINITY's technology.

• One potential use case discussed by UNDP involves using AI to analyze medical scans from roughly 200,000 patients, while allowing the government to retain control over sensitive data.

• The initiative builds on DFINITY's existing work with Pakistan, where DFINITY technology is already being incorporated into national digital infrastructure and several applications are reportedly live.

• UNDP says the initiative grew partly out of concerns it was hearing directly from member states about where the data powering AI applications is stored and their dependence on foreign technology companies.

• UNDP will evaluate the pilots based on factors including cost, ease of use and scalability, helping determine where this infrastructure can be expanded.

This is exactly the kind of adoption I've wanted to see from ICP.

DFINITY isn't announcing another crypto partnership or signing an agreement to "explore possibilities." It's working with a United Nations agency to put its technology in front of national governments solving actual problems, with five countries entering the first round.

Sovereign cloud and sovereign AI have been major parts of DFINITY's thesis for years. Now that thesis is being tested with governments through the UNDP.