The New Development Bank (NDB) will fully embrace AI, in terms of both supporting the industry's development and incorporating the technology in its operation, according to president of the organization Dilma Rousseff.
The NDB will maintain its direction of supporting digital infrastructure development in the coming years, Rousseff, who will start her second five-year term as NBD president in July, told China Media Group (CMG) in an interview in Shanghai on Monday, while giving a special mention of Chinese AI model DeepSeek.
"We will continue to invest in digital infrastructure. Digitalization and the digital economy are prerequisites for achieving this goal. In my view, China presents an example that must be taken into consideration, and that is the emergence of the big AI model DeepSeek. It proves that it is possible to create groundbreaking new technologies using existing technology. Previously, Western countries blocked (China's import of) chips to prevent China from advancing in the field of artificial intelligence. DeepSeek is an inspiring case for the Global South," Rousseff said.
Rousseff also says the NDB is actively studying how it can utilize the power of AI.
"I even hope to promote the use of DeepSeek at the New Development Bank. We have already started doing this, engaging with various fields to understand where we can apply it because this is not traditionally the bank's area of expertise. We want to become a multilateral bank that embraces new technologies, and that is our responsibility," she said.
New Development Bank president highlights need to fully embrace AI
U.S. air travel is expected to return to full operational normality by Sunday night following a massive nationwide ground stop that disrupted thousands of flights and marked the country's longest flight shutdown in 25 years.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the national ground stop on Friday, halting domestic flight departures for over four hours and resulting in more than 10,000 delayed or canceled flights.
On Saturday, lingering bottlenecks from the communications system failure continued to snarl traffic nationwide. Major carriers were hit hard. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines each canceled approximately 20 percent of their flights that day, while JetBlue canceled around 40 percent.
FAA Administrator Brian Bedford apologized to stranded travelers on Saturday, saying that "the worst is behind us." He also said that the airlines would be able to have full schedule integrity by the close of business on Sunday.
Bedford emphasized that the national ground stop was caused by equipment failure, but he ruled out any link to artificial intelligence.
U.S. aviation authorities have been coordinating with major airlines to restore regular flight operations, though delays and cancellations are projected to persist through Sunday.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the glitch occurred while a contractor for the FAA was performing line upgrade work to transition from copper cables to fiber optics, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
He said that the failure may have been caused by operator error or a router defect, which flooded other communication nodes with a massive surge of data, interfering with air-ground communications and causing radar signal interruptions.
Once authorities detected a continuous increase in system load and system overload, the decision was made to order a nationwide flight grounding, transportation secretary said.
On the same day, Duffy renewed his call for Congress to increase funding for the modernization of air traffic infrastructure. He attributed the nationwide flight shutdown to an extremely outdated air traffic control system.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, issued a statement on Saturday demanding Duffy to resign, saying that if he refuses to step down, President Trump should dismiss him.
From long-standing air traffic controller shortages to a succession of communications system failures, severe malfunctions in the U.S. aviation system have become the norm under Secretary Duffy's tenure, Hochul said in the statement.
Hochul urged Congress to launch a comprehensive investigation into the grounding to prevent future nationwide shutdowns.
US air travel expects full recovery by Sunday following massive nationwide ground stop
