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Webinar Update
Webinar W007 on Digital Infrastructure — The Foundation that AI Needs was completed on Saturday 4 July 2026. A video on this topic will be uploaded soon to our YouTube channel @AIGrandad999.alanross and to our 10 language-specific channels (e.g. @AIGrandad999.alanross.Spanish, @AIGrandad999.alanross.Hindi, etc.), where there are now over 20 long and 12 short videos on each channel covering the AI and technology disruptions that will affect your country. We encourage you to view and share these with your networks and to ask them to subscribe so they are notified whenever a new video is uploaded.
Our next free webinar, W008, is planned for Saturday 18 July at 1pm Dublin on the topic: “SDG 2 — Zero Hunger: How Will AI Help Us Achieve This?” For AI academies, this webinar will highlight the practical AI applications — from crop monitoring to early-warning systems for food crises — that your curricula can incorporate, and the research partnerships available in agri-tech AI.
Africa | Skills & Strategy
1. AFRICA AI COUNCIL COMMITS TO TRAINING 3 MILLION AFRICANS IN AI SKILLS WITHIN THREE YEARS
On the sidelines of the AI for Good Summit, the Africa AI Council held its second meeting at ITU headquarters in Geneva, convened by Smart Africa. Members reviewed and validated a two-year continental strategic plan built around five pillars: AI computing infrastructure, data, governance, investment and talent development. A headline commitment is to equip at least three million Africans with AI skills over the next three years. Kenya, among other member states, publicly reaffirmed its commitment to the coordinated continental approach.
Why this matters for AI academies: This is a continent-scale demand signal with a hard number and deadline attached to it. Three million people trained in three years cannot happen through informal or one-off courses — it requires structured, accredited academies at scale. WAAA academies should position themselves now as delivery partners for national governments implementing this plan, citing the Smart Africa talent-development pillar directly in funding and partnership proposals. WAAA encourages governments to implement National AI training programmes and WAAA Academies can be at the forefront in providing such training.
Source: TechAfrica News
Global | Governance & Capacity Building
2. GENEVA'S "AI WEEK" PUTS CAPACITY-BUILDING AND OPEN MODELS AT THE CENTRE OF THE GLOBAL AGENDA
Geneva hosted four major AI events simultaneously between 6–10 July: the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, the WSIS Forum, the AI for Good Global Summit, and the launch of the AI for Good Global Commission. Across the week's sessions, the recurring message was that “the AI divide is no longer simply a connectivity problem” — it spans compute, data, skills, financing and research capacity — and that closing it will require expanded capacity-building programmes, open models and research platforms, and locally grounded AI reflecting national languages and contexts, rather than countries remaining passive consumers of models trained mainly on foreign data.
Why this matters for AI academies: This is now the explicit, stated priority of the UN's own AI governance process — not a niche WAAA argument. “Open models and research platforms” and “locally grounded AI” are exactly the capabilities a well-run AI academy builds toward. Use this framing directly with government and donor partners: capacity-building is not a side issue at these Summits, it is one of the core proposed solutions.
Source: CIO Africa
Africa | Agri-Tech & Student Projects
3. FROM ROTTEN TOMATOES TO AI: UGANDAN FOUNDER'S SOLAR-AND-AI FARMING MODEL WINS COMMONWEALTH YOUTH AWARD
Shifra Ainomugisha of Uganda has been named the 2026 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year — selected from nearly 1,000 applicants across 56 Commonwealth countries and also recognised as Africa's regional winner under SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Her company, Solafam Uganda, combines solar-powered cold storage, renewable-energy irrigation and an AI-powered advisory platform to help smallholder farmers preserve crops and plan production. Since 2022, Solafam has reached more than 1,500 smallholder farmers — 70% of them women — cutting post-harvest losses by around 30% and lifting household incomes by nearly 28%.
Why this matters for AI academies: This is a ready-made, real-world case study for any curriculum module on applied AI, agri-tech or AI entrepreneurship - a founder still early in her career building a measurable, fundable solution with modest resources. Academies preparing students for our 18 July SDG 2 webinar should consider featuring Ainomugisha's model directly: it shows students what a viable AI-for-agriculture graduate project or start-up can look like in an LMIC setting.
Source: BusinessTech Africa
Latin America | Skills & Workforce
4. MCKINSEY: AI WILL RESHAPE MORE THAN HALF OF LATIN AMERICA'S WORK HOURS — AND SKILLS OVERLAP IS THE KEY FINDING FOR EDUCATORS
A McKinsey Global Institute report published 9 July 2026 finds that more than half of today's work hours in Latin America could theoretically be automated with existing AI and automation technologies, with a potential $450 billion in annual economic value by 2030. The report's most important finding for educators: 66% of the skills employers seek today are used in both automatable and non-automatable work — meaning problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills remain valuable precisely because they are used alongside AI, not replaced by it.
Why this matters for AI academies: This gives WAAA academies a research-backed answer to the question every anxious parent and student asks: “will AI take my job?” The answer, per McKinsey, is that the durable, teachable skills are the ones that combine with AI tools rather than compete against them. Curricula that pair technical AI literacy with problem-solving, communication and domain expertise are precisely what this data says the labour market will reward.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute
Global | Infrastructure & Resources
5. GPT-5.6 LAUNCHES AT SHARPLY LOWER PRICING — CLASSROOM AND RESEARCH ACCESS JUST GOT CHEAPER
OpenAI announced general availability of its GPT-5.6 family - Sol, Terra and Luna tiers- on 9 July 2026, rolling out across ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, Codex and the API. The balanced Terra tier is priced at $2.50/$15 per million input/output tokens - exactly half the cost of the previous GPT-5.5 flagship ($5/$30) - while the fastest tier, Luna, runs as low as $1/$6 per million tokens. The move follows a broader trend this year of frontier and open-weight labs, including several Chinese developers, releasing models 60–90% cheaper than last year's leading systems.
Why this matters for AI academies: Budget has consistently been the biggest constraint WAAA academies report when trying to give students hands-on access to frontier-quality tools. This week's price cuts, on top of the growing field of cheap open-weight alternatives, make it realistic to budget frontier-model access into standard course fees rather than treating it as a premium add-on. Worth benchmarking against whatever your academy currently uses before your next budget cycle.
Source: Engadget
