The July 2026 edition of Pulse — On Algorithms and Governance rounds up a month of unusually dense regulatory activity. In the UK, a new Prime Minister’s AI Taskforce took shape at the centre of government while departments were restructured and DSIT closed, its science, innovation, and technology responsibilities redistributed across new arrangements. In the EU, the AI Omnibus entered into force with targeted simplifications to the AI Act, and the Commission issued fresh guidance ahead of the transparency obligations that begin to apply on 2 August.
Two themes ran through the issue. The first is the growing convergence of AI and cybersecurity — visible in the EU’s joint action plan and the White House’s “GOLD EAGLE” clearinghouse. The second is sovereignty, which surfaced across Stanford HAI’s survey of commercial sovereignty offerings, the EU AI Office’s competitiveness findings, and Canada’s updated digital sovereignty standard. Underlying both, the Global Index on Responsible AI and the UN Scientific Panel’s first preliminary report point to the same conclusion: a widening gap between governance frameworks and their implementation.
From our work
Applications open — DSA Cambridge Fellowship 2027. Applications are now open for the 2027 cohort of the DSA Cambridge Fellowship, a selective 12-month hybrid programme that convenes senior leaders from academia, government, multilateral institutions, and industry to advance responsible AI and data-driven governance. Hosted at the University of Cambridge, it combines intensive in-person training, applied projects, and expert engagement.
DSA Working Paper — Governing Well in the Algorithmic Age: The Foundations of Digital Statecraft. A new DSA Working Paper introduces digital statecraft as the organising concept for an emerging field. It argues that states now rest on a digital substrate — data, algorithms, infrastructure, platforms, and applications — that is being governed without adequate conceptual foundations, and that the digital does not simply extend the question of statecraft but reconstitutes it. The paper sets out ten principles, each naming a condition whose absence produces a structural governance failure, and underpins the intellectual framework of the DSA Cambridge Fellowship.
Registration open — Data for Policy 2026. Registration is open for Data for Policy 2026, taking place in Barcelona from 8–10 September on the theme Governance of/with AI: Implications for Data, Infrastructure, and Tech Sovereignty. The conference brings together researchers, policymakers, and innovators from across the global data policy community. Registration closes 25 August.
Call for Expressions of Interest — host a future Data for Policy conference. Data for Policy is inviting institutions to join its network of global hosts, from the University of Cambridge to HKUST. Interested institutions can submit an Expression of Interest, detailing a proposed theme, venue, team, and dates, to team@dataforpolicy.org.
The wider governance landscape
Regulation and institutions. Alongside the UK’s new PM’s AI Taskforce (chaired by Lord Vallance) and the closure of DSIT, the government opened calls for evidence on how data regulation interacts with AI, and more than 60 organisations signed a voluntary cyber resilience pledge committing to board-level accountability. The EU’s AI Omnibus introduced extended timelines for high-risk systems, expanded regulatory sandboxes, and reduced administrative burdens, and the Commission published guidance clarifying which providers and deployers fall within the AI Act’s transparency rules.
AI and cybersecurity. The European Commission presented an EU Action Plan on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, while the White House launched “GOLD EAGLE,” a public–private clearinghouse to coordinate the detection and patching of vulnerabilities across US critical infrastructure using frontier AI.
Sovereignty and the implementation gap. Canada’s Digital Governance Standards Institute published a second edition of its national standard on digital sovereignty, adding a Digital Sovereignty Assessment framework. Stanford HAI’s survey of sovereignty offerings found that most products reconfigure rather than eliminate dependence on a handful of upstream providers. The Global Index on Responsible AI 2026 (2nd Edition), assessing 135 countries, found responsible-AI governance expanding but unevenly, with frameworks showing evidence of implementation in only 55% of cases and fewer than one in five governments disclosing their own use of AI. The UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel released its first preliminary report on 1 July, warning that current safeguards are not keeping pace with AI’s advancing capabilities.
Featured Data & Policy articles
The issue highlights recent research and commentaries published in Data & Policy (Cambridge University Press), including:
- Zeynep Engin and David Hand — Towards adaptive categories: Dimensional governance for agentic AI
- Thierry Warin — Middle powers in the platform economy: Digital sovereignty after the data pivot
- Xianrui Liu and Kalpana Shankar — Human–AI interaction data governance and personal health management: analysis of the literature
- Nathan Davies and Flynn Devine — AI and citizen participation: a political economy lens
- Laura Vásquez-Rodríguez et al. — Comparing AI-based approaches to candidate screening: recommendations for policy and regulation
Read the full July edition of Pulse for the complete selection of reports, articles, blog pieces and events.
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