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UN General Assembly
How can technology and artificial intelligence be harnessed to support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and create a positive impact in the Global South? This question is top of mind for many gathering at the UN's 79th General Assembly in New York.
Our livestream panel discussion, "Live from the United Nations: Securing Our Digital Future" will examine these key issues on Tuesday, September 24 at 5:30 PM ET broadcasting live from inside United Nations headquarters as the first day of high-level General Debate concludes. Produced in collaboration between GZERO Media’s Global Stage series and the UN’s Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d), our panel of prominent experts and leaders will explore how multilateral organizations are adapting to the realities of the 21st-century world.
The discussion will be moderated by Folly Bah Thibault, a journalist and senior presenter for Al-Jazeera English, and will feature a distinguished panel including:
- Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
- Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF
- Petr Pavel, Czech Republic President
- Guy Bernard Ryider, Under-Secretary-General for Policy, EOSG
- Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
- Anne Witkowsky, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations
Live from the United Nations: Securing a Digital Future
Artificial intelligence has the power to transform our world, but it’s also an existential threat. There's been a patchwork of efforts to regulate AI, but they’ve been concentrated in wealthy countries, while those in the Global South, who stand to benefit most from AI’s potential, have been left out. Can the United Nations come together at this year’s General Assembly to agree on standards for a safe, equitable, and inclusive AI future?
Tomorrow, the UN’s High Level Advisory Body on AI will release a report called “Governing AI for Humanity,” with recommendations for global AI governance that will be a roadmap for safeguarding our digital future and making sure AI will truly benefit everyone in the world. Ian Bremmer is one of the 39 experts on the AI Advisory Body, and he sat down with UN Secretary-General António Guterres for an exclusive GZERO World interview on the sidelines of the General Assembly to discuss the report and why Guterres believes the UN is the only organization capable of creating a truly global, inclusive framework for AI.
“The United Nations has one important characteristic: its legitimacy. It's a platform where everybody can be together,” Guterres says, “Others have the power, others have the money, but not the legitimacy or the convening power the UN has.”
The exclusive conversation begins airing nationally on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on public television this Friday, Sept. 20. Everything you need to know about Advisory Body’s final report will be dissected and analyzed in the GZERO Daily, landing in inboxes tomorrow (Sept. 19) at 7 am. Sign up here.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don''t miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
When a country experiences a natural disaster, satellite technology and artificial intelligence can be used to rapidly gather data on the damage and initiate an effective response, according to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith.
But to actually save lives “it's high-tech meets low-tech,” he said during a Global Stage livestream event at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
He gave the example of SEEDS, an Indian NGO that dispatches local teens to distribute life-saving aid during heatwaves. He said the program emblemizes the effective combination of “artificial intelligence, technology, and people on the ground.”
The discussion was moderated by Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic and was held by GZERO Media in collaboration with the United Nations, the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, and the Early Warnings for All initiative.
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: Can data and AI save lives and make the world safer?
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There are some pretty sharp people all around the world trying to craft policy, but their best efforts are often limited by poor data. Anne Witkowsky, Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, says that’s about to change.
“Data-driven, evidence-driven decision-making by policymakers is going to be more successful” with the help of artificial intelligence, she said during a Global Stage livestream event at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Witkowsky said the focus needs to be on inclusion and partnership with governments in developing countries to use new technology to “build resilience” against the unrelenting pressure such states face.
The discussion was moderated by Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic and was held by GZERO Media in collaboration with the United Nations, the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, and the Early Warnings for All initiative.
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: Can data and AI save lives and make the world safer?
Dr. Comfort Ero of the International Crisis Group has spent her career tackling the most difficult conflicts in the world, often exacerbated by severe environmental or social disasters. But as the climate crisis and war in Ukraine compound the forces pushing many fragile societies to the brink, she says multilateral institutions like the United Nations are not prepared to meet the challenge.
Faced with state collapse, food insecurity, and lack of governance, countries like Libya, Lebanon and Sri Lanka are not able to access the help they need to stabilize, build resilience and thrive.
“Countries are already facing difficult trend lines with a multilateral system that is shaky, that is fragile, that is already stretched to its capacity, not able to deal.” she said during a Global Stage livestream event at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The discussion was moderated by Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic and was held by GZERO Media in collaboration with the United Nations, the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, and the Early Warnings for All initiative.
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: Can data and AI save lives and make the world safer?
- UN chief: We must avoid the mistakes that led to World War I ›
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- Is there a path ahead for peace in Ukraine? ›
- Many knew Putin wasn't bluffing, but not how far he'd go, says International Crisis Group’s Comfort Ero ›
- What Africa has to say about climate change ›
- The Graphic Truth: Has climate change hurt or helped farmers? ›
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Staving off "the dark side" of artificial intelligence: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed
Artificial Intelligence promises revolutionary advances in the way we work, live and govern ourselves, but is it all a rosy picture?
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed says that while the potential benefits are enormous, “so is the dark side.” Without thoughtful leadership, the world could lose a precious opportunity to close major social divides. She spoke during a Global Stage livestream event at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The discussion was moderated by Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic and was held by GZERO Media in collaboration with the United Nations, the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, and the Early Warnings for All initiative.
She says it will take a “transformative mindset” and an eagerness to tackle more and bigger problems to pull off the transition, and emphasizes the severe mismatch of capable leadership with positions of power.
"Where there is leadership, there's not much power. And where there is power, that leadership is struggling,” she said.
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: Can data and AI save lives and make the world safer?
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Doreen Bogdan-Marin spends a lot of time thinking about how to keep the world connected as the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union. The biggest frontier in that realm is expanding internet access to those in the developing world who struggle to get online.
To that end, she organized Partner2Connect, which hopes to raise $100 billion by 2026 to “connect every last person” on the planet to the internet. Doing so could help progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are woefully behind schedule.
She and GZERO’s Tony Maciulis discussed the potential benefits of worldwide connectivity, as well as AI’s potential to help close the gap.
More at the UN General Assembly: Global Stage.
- No internet, no education, says Vickie Robinson ›
- Should internet be free for everyone? A Global Stage debate ›
- Want Africa to grow? Get people and businesses online: Africa expert ›
- The Graphic Truth: New digital jobs in a post-pandemic world ›
- "Access is a fundamental right" - Digital activist Vilas Dhar - GZERO Media ›
- Live premiere: Gender Equality in the age of AI - GZERO Media ›