Why GlobalSouthAI?

Artificial Intelligence is transforming science, economies, societies, and everyday life. Yet the development, evaluation, and deployment of AI remain disproportionately shaped by the needs, resources, and perspectives of a relatively small number of regions.

The Global South is home to the majority of the world's population and encompasses an extraordinary diversity of languages, cultures, socioeconomic contexts, infrastructures, and societal challenges. Most AI systems, however, are developed and evaluated in settings with abundant compute, extensive datasets, and mature digital infrastructure.

GlobalSouthAI @ NeurIPS 2026 brings together researchers, students, practitioners, policymakers, and communities to ask:

• How can AI systems work effectively under resource and infrastructure constraints?

• How can AI better reflect local languages, cultures, values, and contexts?

• How can researchers in the Global South participate not only as users of AI, but as creators and contributors?

• How can AI be made more accessible, efficient, responsible, and sustainable?

• What new research directions emerge when AI is built around the realities of the Global South?

• What can the broader AI community learn from research, innovation, and deployment experiences across the Global South?

Call for Contributions

We invite contributions from students, researchers, educators, practitioners, community leaders, and policymakers.

We particularly encourage work that combines technical innovation with real-world relevance and demonstrates how AI can be developed, evaluated, or deployed in diverse and resource-constrained environments.

We welcome:

• Technical research contributions

• Emerging ideas and early-stage research

• Position papers

• Demo papers

• Experience reports

• Case studies

• Deployment experiences

• Community initiatives

• Educational and mentorship programs

• Responsible AI perspectives

• AI policy and governance perspectives

Contributions may be theoretical, empirical, applied, interdisciplinary, or community-driven.

Registration Details

Registration details will be announced following the release of the official NeurIPS 2026 participation information.

Invited Keynote Speakers

Organizing Team

NeurIPS Bridging the Future – Efficient AI Training Program Ambassadors

3MT Mentorship Initiative Team

Program Schedule

TBD

The program will include keynote talks, contributed presentations, lightning talks, a poster session, 3MT Competition, awards, and community-building activities.

Accepted Works

3-Minute Presentation (3MT) Contest Finalists

About GlobalSouthAI

GlobalSouthAI is a growing international community dedicated to advancing AI research, education, and collaboration across underrepresented regions of the world.

Our mission is to create sustainable pathways for participation in global AI research while promoting innovations that address local and regional challenges.

We aim to build an AI ecosystem that is:

Inclusive. Accessible. Responsible. Efficient. Globally representative.

GlobalSouthAI @ NeurIPS 2026 builds on previous community activities, including:

• 🚀 GlobalSouthAI @ AAAI 2026, Singapore 🇸🇬 100+ submissions

• 🚀 GlobalSouthML @ ICML 2026, Seoul 🇰🇷 150+ submissions

• 🚀 GlobalSouthAI @ IJCAI-ECAI 2026, Bremen 🇩🇪

Together, these activities are helping establish a sustained community around AI for and from the Global South.

About NeurIPS Bridging the Future - Efficient AI Training Program

GlobalSouthAI @ NeurIPS 2026 is supported by the NeurIPS Bridging the Future Grant, enabling initiatives focused on expanding access to efficient AI research, training, mentorship, and participation.

Efficient AI Training Program Ambassadors

Our ambassadors help expand access to practical knowledge and opportunities in efficient and resource-aware AI, particularly for researchers and learners working in resource-constrained environments.

About 3MT Mentorship Initiative

The 3MT Mentorship Initiative connects selected participants with experienced researchers and previous 3MT presenters to help them transform complex research into clear, compelling three-minute presentations.

Join GlobalSouthAI Community via LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-south-ai/ 

Contact Email

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us: globalsouthai-neurips-26@googlegroups.com