November 2025 saw remarkable progress in AI, digital governance, and innovation across governments, international organisations, and industry. Initiatives spanning regulatory frameworks, technological adoption, and research marked a pivotal month in shaping the future of global digital policy.
UK and EU Lead on AI and Digital Policy: The UK government launched the AI Model Arena to support the evaluation and adoption of AI models for defence applications, while updating the Cyber Security and Resilience (NIS) Bill and providing funding to boost AI-driven business growth, skills, and digital public services. In Europe, the EU introduced its Digital Omnibus, Data Union Strategy, and European Business Wallets to simplify AI, data, and cybersecurity rules, reduce administrative costs, and encourage innovation. The Digital Justice Package 2030 aims to modernize justice systems, enhance cross-border cooperation, and improve access to justice through AI tools and training.
Global Cooperation and Industry Initiatives: International collaborations flourished with the U.S.–Japan and U.S.–Korea Technology Prosperity Deals, strengthening strategic AI, semiconductor, and quantum technology partnerships. ASEAN adopted the Declaration on the Establishment of an ASEAN AI Safe Framework, and APEC endorsed the Artificial Intelligence Initiative (2026–2030). Morocco’s Digital X.0 law and Ukraine’s draft national AI development strategy further highlight global progress in AI governance.
Industry also advanced significantly. Microsoft, Nvidia, Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, and OpenAI launched partnerships, AI safety initiatives, and infrastructure expansion. Google announced plans to expand its AI infrastructure capacity by up to 1,000× over the next four to five years, while Hugging Face initiated a new open-robotics programme to support research in robotics-focused AI.
Reports, White Papers, and Research: November’s key reports include the UK AI Growth Zones Plan: Accelerating regional AI innovation and investment, OECD’s Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2025, Stanford HAI’s analysis “Moving beyond the term ‘Global South’ in AI ethics and policy discussions”, and the Tony Blair Institute’s report on “How Europe can strengthen competitiveness and security through AI-driven technological leadership”.
Featured Articles: The newsletter highlighted influential articles that provide actionable insights:
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“The Emergence of a Data Winter: The Growing Enclosure of Data at a Time of Rapid AI Advances” – explores risks of data hoarding threatening evidence-based policymaking.
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“Why Generative Artificial Intelligence Does Not Survive First Contact with Bureaucracy” – explains how AI outputs are reshaped by institutional and political processes.
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“Measuring what Matters: Construct Validity in Large Language Model Benchmarks” – reviews 445 LLM benchmarks and offers recommendations to improve safety, robustness, and model validity.
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“Beyond the Digital Divide: Unlocking Urban Economic Resilience through Integrated Digital Infrastructure and Finance” – shows how coordinated digital infrastructure strengthens urban economic resilience.
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“Fair human-centric image dataset for ethical AI benchmarking” – introduces FHIBE, a publicly available human image dataset designed with consent, diversity, and privacy safeguards.
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“Balancing innovation and integrity: AI in tax administration and taxpayer rights” – examines how AI improves efficiency while protecting transparency and fairness.
Blogs and Thought Leadership
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Nature: Data-rich overview of the global AI landscape featuring six leading experts.
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Cambridge Forum: Discussion on policy, societal, and technical steps needed to address the future impacts of AI, with contributions from Dr Zeynep Engin, Founder & Director of Data for Policy CIC.
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Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship – explores governance challenges in the era of AI.
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OECD.AI: Maps global AI compute resources, highlighting regional disparities.
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e-Estonia: Lessons from Estonia’s interoperable digital ID system for citizen-empowering services.
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World Economic Forum: Southeast Asian economies adopting AI to shift toward an “intelligent economy.”
In November 2025, coordinated efforts across research, policy, regulation, and industry underscored the importance of building trustworthy, ethical, and inclusive digital ecosystems.
🔗 To read the full November 2025 newsletter, click here.
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