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Why true AI progress is dependent on collective engagement
AI’s impact on healthcare is expected to outpace education, according to Microsoft’s Brad Smith. AI is revolutionizing drug discovery and precision medicine, flowing naturally to doctors. But education evolves more slowly—tools alone aren't enough. It requires buy-in from teachers, students, and families. Smith emphasizes that while technology offers potential, true progress happens when people are brought along together on the journey, ensuring AI serves society.
Smith spoke during GZERO’s Global Stage livestream, “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.
How AI is tackling food security, disaster response and other global challenges
AI for Good is more than a buzzword—it's a powerful tool tackling global challenges like food security, disaster response, and water conservation. Microsoft’s Brad Smith highlights real-world examples, such as using AI to analyze water data in Kenya, offering actionable solutions for governments and communities. Through collaborations with universities and NGOs, AI is driving progress on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, turning technology into a force for societal improvement.
Smith spoke during GZERO’s Global Stage livestream, “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.
For AI access for all, investment is the key, says Microsoft's Brad Smith
AI has immense potential, but guardrails alone won’t ensure its benefits reach everyone. According to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, policies must ensure AI is safe and secure, but equitable access requires more—investment. Just as electricity took over a century to reach parts of the world, Smith says AI’s widespread adoption depends on economic strategies that go beyond values. It's a balance of ethics and action to ensure AI’s benefits are felt globally.
Smith spoke during GZERO’s Global Stage livestream, “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.
Can we use AI to secure the world's digital future?
How do we ensure AI is safe, available to everyone, and enhancing productivity? It’s a big topic at this year’s UN General Assembly. That’s why GZERO’s Global Stage livestream on Tuesday brought together leading experts at the heart of the action for “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft. The conversation was moderated by Folly Bah Thibault, a journalist and senior presenter for Al-Jazeera English.
Securing the future starts by building a strong foundation, and the International Monetary Fund plays a key role in the fight by matching funding to the needs of developing economies. But it goes deeper than that, said Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. “What we deliver is not just money, it is putting in place strong institutions.
”Those same strong institutions will help build a more peaceful world, said Czech President Petr Pavel — but only if countries can learn to compromise. “If we don’t want to live forever in conflict, we have to finally learn that we have to share this planet.”
In that sense, tackling a lot of the problems the world faces — conflict, inequality, technological disruption — boils down to finding shared values and putting funds where they are most needed. “What is regulation and policy if it is not based on values?” asked Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder, adding that good policy, properly funded, would allow “you [to] connect people … and educate them to use the technologies” that could prove transformative.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said AI technology will play a crucial role in helping the world achieve Sustainable Development Goals — most of which are in very rough shape. “It’s not about stopping, it’s about really accelerating” to make good on what can be achieved by 2030.
Eurasia Group and GZERO Media President Ian Bremmer said his work with the UN on developing an international framework for AI has focused on “deploying AI to help up meet the sustainable development goals.”
But safeguards aren’t enough, said Microsoft President Brad Smith. “Guardrails aren’t going to ensure it reaches everybody. Investment will,” he said. Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI and has invested in more than 20 AI-related startups.
The US State Department is also working to leverage artificial intelligence in advancing global peace. “We see data as the lens that brings the factors that drive instability into focus,” said Anne Witkowsky, assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilization operations. That means using AI to bring together the big picture — economics, politics, climate, sociology — to identify hot spots before problems spiral.
Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Workneh Gebeyehu offered a practical example: “We have a climate center that works for all Africa to predict droughts, floods, and locust storms,” relying on pattern recognition technology. That helps farmers and governments react in real-time, ideally avoiding the worst of the catastrophes.
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Live from the United Nations: Securing Our Digital Future
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, sponsored by Microsoft, 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:
- Talal Al Kaissi, Acting Group Chief Global Affairs Officer, G42
- Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
- Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
- Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF
- Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations
- Petr Pavel, Czech Republic President
- Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy, Executive Office of the Secretary-General
- 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 Our Digital Future
Voters beware: Elections and the looming threat of deepfakes
With AI tools already being used to manipulate voters across the globe via deepfakes, more needs to be done to help people comprehend what this technology is capable of, says Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith.
Smith highlighted a recent example of AI being used to deceive voters in New Hampshire.
“The voters in New Hampshire, before the New Hampshire primary, got phone calls. When they answered the phone, there was the voice of Joe Biden — AI-created — telling people not to vote. He did not authorize that; he did not believe in it. That was a deepfake designed to deceive people,” Smith said during a Global Stage panel on AI and elections on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last month.
“What we fundamentally need to start with is help people understand the state of what technology can do and then start to define what's appropriate, what is inappropriate, and how do we manage that difference?” Smith went on to say.
Watch the full conversation here: How to protect elections in the age of AI
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Tech accord on AI & elections will help manage the ‘new reality,’ says Microsoft’s Brad Smith
At the Munich Security Conference, leading tech companies unveiled a new accord that committed them to combating AI-generated content that could disrupt elections.
During a Global Stage panel on the sidelines of this year’s conference, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said the accord would not completely solve the problem of deceptive AI content but would help “manage this new reality in a way that will make a difference and really serve all of the elections… between now and the end of the year.”
As Smith explains, the accord is designed to bring the tech industry together to preserve the “authenticity of content,” including via the creation of content credentials. The industry will also work to detect deepfakes and provide candidates with a mechanism to report them, says Smith, while also taking steps to “promote transparency and education.”
The conversation was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.
Watch the full conversation here: How to protect elections in the age of AI
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Deepfakes are ‘fraud,’ says Microsoft's Brad Smith
The rapid rise of AI has presented a wide array of challenges, particularly in terms of finding a balance between protecting the right to free expression and safeguarding democracy from the corrosive effects of misinformation.
But Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith says freedom of expression does not apply to deepfakes — fake images or videos created via AI, which can involve using someone else’s face and/or voice without their permission. During a Global Stage panel on AI and elections at the Munich Security Conference, Smith unequivocally decried deepfakes as a form of “fraud.”
“The right to free expression gives me the right to stand up and say what is on my mind,” says Smith, adding, “I do not have the right to steal and use your voice. Your voice belongs to you and you alone… Let's give people the right to say what they think. Let's not steal their voice and put words in their mouth.”
The conversation was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.
Watch the full conversation here: How to protect elections in the age of AI
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