Telesur President Patricia Villegas Marín advocated for information and technological sovereignty as indispensable conditions to close the artificial intelligence gap between the Global North and South.Villegas Marín, who is participating in the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing, China, stated on Saturday, November 5, that the AI gap cannot be closed without information sovereignty. According to her assessment, information sovereignty is practically nonexistent today without technological independence. In line with this, she pointed out that the development of AI technology is not neutral, as computing, data, and technical capabilities are concentrated in a small group of Global North countries.She pointed out that inequality is not limited to access; it also affects the sovereignty of Global South nations, which provide data and information to train models and then have to pay to use those tools.Among the main challenges for the South, she mentioned the dependence on foreign infrastructure, the extraction of data without compensation, unilateral coercive measures and blockades that restrict access to technologies, and the emigration of professionals to centers with a higher concentration of capital.In this regard, Villegas Marín commented that Cuba has denounced the effects of the US blockade on its access to technological advancements at multilateral forums. Meanwhile, Nicaragua and Venezuela have defended technological sovereignty and questioned the unilateral sanctions affecting countries of the South. She added that AI governance cannot remain under the control of a few powers or the international spaces they dominate.The president of Telesur emphasized that Global South media have the responsibility to produce, distribute, and preserve their own content to prevent AI systems from reproducing biases and omissions about their societies. In this regard, she emphasized the necessary cooperation among media outlets through alliances to share content, distribution infrastructure, experiences, and technological capabilities.For these purposes, she described the Beijing summit as an opportunity to establish functional links between media organizations and strengthen exchange networks among Global South countries without exclusively relying on foreign platforms.Villegas Marín also warned about the use of AI to generate false content, impersonate identities, and spread nonexistent statements or scenes with political, partisan, and electoral objectives.In this scenario, she deemed it necessary to develop tools to help audiences distinguish real facts from manipulated content, along with digital literacy programs. She highlighted China’s technological capabilities as an important contribution to reducing international imbalances in this area.The 7th World Media Summit in Beijing brings together approximately 500 representatives from some 330 media organizations, think tanks, and institutions from 112 countries, with discussions focused on the transformation of communication and the challenges of artificial intelligence.Media leaders from the Global South called for closer cooperation at the ongoing 7th World Media Summit to challenge Western-dominated narratives that often reduce their countries to conflict, poverty and crises while overlooking achievements and innovations https://t.co/N826dP3fOS— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 6, 2026Among the Global South delegations participating in the summit are Cuban media, including Prensa Latina, Juventud Rebelde, and Ideas Multimedios; Telesur from Venezuela; and representatives from public and community media in Nicaragua. Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico were also present, with journalists and delegations from various media outlets.Telesur Defends Sovereignty of Global South Media in ShanghaiThe Iraqi Media Network, as well as outlets from Japan and various Gulf nations, are participating. China, the host, is represented by the state media agency Xinhua and the Beijing municipal government.The meeting coincides with the 95th anniversary of Xinhua’s founding. It places at the center of the debate the challenges of artificial intelligence, the transformation of the media in the AI age, and international cooperation to face common challenges for humanity, in a context where cognitive warfare and fake news are used as weapons of destabilization against sovereign nations.The agenda addresses the development of artificial intelligence solutions for the media sector, the exchange of technological resources, and reducing the digital divide that separates developed countries from the Global South nations, historically excluded from the control of platforms, satellites, cables, and algorithms. (Telesur)Translation: Orinoco TribuneOT/SC/SF