00:00Dr. Rahman, you just took the gavel of the 81st General Assembly just over a few days ago.
00:06Now, within the next few days, we're going to start to see the world leaders trickle into New York City.
00:11What is the primary message that you have for those world leaders?
00:14Thank you for having me.
00:16Yes, I took the gavel from my predecessor about a week ago.
00:23It felt heavier than I thought.
00:25So I'm looking forward to the next week's high-level segment of the General Assembly where we expect more than
00:34125 heads of states and heads of governments to come.
00:40This shows the convening power of the General Assembly.
00:44We will hear them, these leaders who are governing our societies, what is their outlook on various issues that are
00:58affecting us, the old and new issues from the raging conflicts to AI.
01:04And we'll sift through their views and try to find areas where we can agree and build on those in
01:14terms of agrid actions.
01:18So one of the things that I look very intent on is at a time when the trust and confidence
01:24in the UN has arguably declined, what are the ways we can bring it back up?
01:32Well, I am curious.
01:34Your term is going to overlap with a new UN Secretary General.
01:38That process is unfolding right now.
01:40The Security Council will present a name to you.
01:44Do you want just one name presented to you by the Security Council?
01:48Or are you going to assist on multiple choices?
01:51This is a very good question.
01:53The charter is very clear.
01:55I will be guided by the United Nations Charter.
01:58And the charter says that the Security Council will recommend a candidate and the General Assembly will appoint.
02:06So if the words of charter are kept by the Security Council members and they send me one name, I'll
02:13act on that one name.
02:15We haven't had a case in the last nine instances of multiple names advanced to us.
02:22But what happens is when a candidate announces his or her candidature, we invite them to the General Assembly and
02:35explain their vision and their work program and have an interactive dialogue with the larger membership.
02:42Are you anticipating any additional candidates to come forward that haven't already actually put their names out there?
02:51Candidates have been coming in and I cannot predict whether there will be new ones.
02:58We'll have to do with that whenever it happens.
03:01But if somebody comes forward, I would do my job in getting that individual introduced to the member states and
03:10have a dialogue, frank dialogue on what she or he wants to do with this job.
03:15Well, current Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez just yesterday was speaking to reporters and he talked about three existential threats that
03:22he saw to the world.
03:23The climate crisis, growing inequalities, but also artificial intelligence.
03:28And I know that the next U.N. global dialogue is supposed to come up in March of next year.
03:33But I've heard you actually say that that dialogue can actually wait.
03:38We've had a lot of threats and a lot of concerns right now about the rollout of AI and the
03:44potential risk that it is posing to every nation around the world.
03:48My point is very simple.
03:51This is a fast moving innovation that will fundamentally affect the way we live.
04:01It's very important to understand the various aspects of it.
04:06First of all, the innovation part must not stop.
04:10We should continue innovation and the doors to that should be open.
04:14But at the same time, we have to look at three issues that comes with it.
04:18First, job losses.
04:21I just heard from a young woman, Francesca, on your last program about coders losing job.
04:29Okay, so this creative destruction of this new technology, I would like it to be more on the creative side
04:37than destructive side.
04:40And it's very important to ensure that there's a soft landing for those who are losing jobs and they find
04:46alternative ways of living.
04:49The second thing that we have seen in the previous round of technological change, especially when Internet came, digital divide
04:58between countries.
05:00We would like to see if there is a way to avoid that this time.
05:04And third, existential issues.
05:08We have heard from technology leaders in the last few days that a super smart AI with sentient characteristics might
05:21eventually even replace us as human species.
05:26You know, the processing powers of these beings are infinitely more than ours.
05:34So if it is a question of survival of the fittest, I'm not sure where we humans stand on the
05:43scale.
05:43The important thing is that we avoid that eventually.
05:47We did it when it came to human class.
05:50We did it when it came to nuclear non-proliferation.
05:55This is non-proliferation on steroids.
05:57Does the UN, though, still have the authority and clout to marshal the entire world around something that is everybody's
06:06problem?
06:06Or is this something that will primarily be solved by either the major superpowers or maybe the major companies involved?
06:15You see, this is where I'm making a point to all countries.
06:20Even the United Nations is centered around governments.
06:25But the innovations in regard to AI, the governments do not have the principal role.
06:33We have the innovators.
06:34We have the industrial leaders.
06:37And then we have a large group of people who will be using them, who will be affected by them.
06:42The United Nations must unlock its doors to them.
06:46We cannot regard these non-state actors as the others, especially on this matter.
06:54We should get them together and huddle with them to figure out what kind of guardrails we would need.
07:01International cooperation is the answer.
07:04And we cannot do it by having the states alone.
07:07Well, speaking of international cooperation, particularly with the high-level meetings coming up,
07:11I mean, there are several unresolved military conflicts out there, from the situation in Gaza to Ukraine,
07:17but more importantly also with Iran.
07:19Has there been any talk about maybe trying to marshal some more formal discussions over the next week
07:25about maybe potentially finding some sort of solution to what's going on in Iran?
07:29You see, the solution to all any of these problems lie in dialogue.
07:37And that's what we do in the United Nations, get the various actors together.
07:45Look at what happened last year.
07:47The United States had an opportunity to sit with a number of Muslim countries during this journal assembly.
07:54And out of that discussion came this Gaza peace plan.
07:58So we are a platform that we offer to all countries to sit together and push the envelope towards peace
08:08and away from conflict.
08:10But, Doctor, I have to ask you, and specifically about Gaza.
08:12I mean, you're from Bangladesh, so you have had a first-row seat to the Rohingya crisis over there,
08:19a crisis that is now nine years and running.
08:22There are a lot of people that see some parallels to what's going on in Gaza, now basically three years
08:28and running.
08:29Are there lessons that you can take from the situation in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the neighboring nations
08:34to what's going on right now in Gaza and Israel?
08:37You see, the most important lesson is the terrible impact this has on lives of people that are affected.
08:48I spent many, many hours in Rohingya camps.
08:52I was my government's high representative for Rohingya issues.
08:55The issue almost died.
08:57Last year, we could manage to bring it to the United Nations in the form of an international conference.
09:04And ever since, we have seen the various parties trying to get together in order to resolving this.
09:13As I said, even in the Rohingya issue, we are into the ninth year, but we see now some glimmers
09:18of hope
09:19that parties will get together and start talking about resolving this crisis.
09:26And we might take time in agreeing on solutions, but in the meanwhile, it's very important
09:34that we don't forget that lives are at stake.
09:37Lives are at stake.
09:39We've got to continue to provide support to those who are alive.
09:43And this is one of the things that even does very well.
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