CAIRO, Oct. 1– The 2026 Global South Modernization Forum was held in Cairo on Wednesday under the theme “The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Challenges for Modernization in the Global South.”
More than 100 experts and scholars from nearly 30 countries and regions attended the forum.
Participants said innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) technology presents enormous opportunities while also posing governance challenges.
At the 18th BRICS Summit earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward important initiatives to empower new industrialization with AI and promote open-source and inclusive AI development, outlining a direction for AI development that serves the common good, they said.
Modernization in the Global South is at a crucial stage of overcoming development constraints, addressing capacity gaps and transforming growth drivers, they said, calling for effective use of AI to continually strengthen the internal drivers of development.
Participants said AI is a shared asset of all humanity and urged Global South countries to seize this historic opportunity to use AI to empower a wide range of industries and improve people’s well-being.
They called for improving global AI governance, practicing genuine multilateralism, bridging the AI divide and ensuring that development and security reinforce each other.
They also urged greater exchanges and mutual learning in AI, a commitment to open-source development, openness, cooperation and sharing, and deeper theoretical and practical research to ensure that AI better benefits humanity.
The forum was jointly hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Renmin University of China and Cairo University.
The event featured four parallel forums. “The Rise of the Global South: An Atlas of Academic Research on Modernization in the Global South” and “Top 10 Buzzwords in Global South Modernization Research of 2026” were released at the forum.
Academic exhibitions, youth exchanges and think tank seminars were also held before and after the forum.
