Secretary Antony J. Blinken at the Advancing Sustainable Development Through Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI Event

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MODERATOR: And now I'm pleased to introduce the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Antony Blinken. (Applause.)

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Hey, thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, everyone.

And, first of all, to those of you who are just starting like I am on High-Level Week here at the United Nations in New York - take it from a veteran and also a native New Yorker - three simple words of advice: take the subway. (Laughter.)

Last year, we gathered on the margins on the General Assembly to discuss the future promise of artificial intelligence to advance sustainable development. And of the many events I did last year, this is one of the events that really stuck with me, because I could feel the energy, the palpable enthusiasm, the belief that AI can be a - such a force multiplier in actually moving forward on Sustainable Development Goals.

This year, that future promise is increasingly a present-day possibility. But if we're going to realize the full potential of AI to improve the lives of people around the world, that requires accelerating our efforts to ensure that this technology is genuinely inclusive. And that's what I want to spend a little bit of time talking about today.

"Inclusive" means that more people can access, understand, and develop AI to help solve the problems that they actually face in their lives. It means that AI technology benefits from - and helps preserve - cultural and linguistic diversity. It means that civil society, the private sector, governments, multilateral organizations all have a voice in shaping the governance and applications of this technology. It means that AI reduces, rather than exacerbates, the enduring inequities within and between our countries.

Around the world, we are seeing remarkable innovations in harnessing AI to actually expand opportunity.

Just to cite a few examples, in Brazil, AI chatbots are providing personalized tutoring to students with disabilities, expanding access to quality education for them.

In Indonesia, AI is helping manage and optimize renewable energy grids - bringing clean, affordable energy to more communities.

In India, farmers are using AI-driven apps to adapt to changing climate conditions, improving livelihoods, feeding more people.

The focus of this gathering - what brings us all together today - is what can we do to give more people in more places the power to unleash opportunities like these.

We know that we have our work cut out for us. Because, as we know, this revolution, this AI revolution, is leaving people behind - simply due to a lack of access or a lack of capacity. And those are really the challenges before us and the challenges that we're focused on today.

Now, this is a disparity that hurts all of us, and here's why: the more inclusive AI is, the more effective it can actually be in tackling the challenges that are affecting people everywhere, including here in the United States, including in many other countries around the world: challenges like rising temperatures, deadly viruses, things that don't stop at borders and demand that we find partners and solutions in every part of the globe; challenges like food insecurity that can lead to conflict and mass migrations. Making this technology more inclusive, it's not an act of generosity. It's in our national interest and in the interests of our firms, of our entrepreneurs, of our investors.

The foundation for making AI more inclusive is governance - the international rules, the international norms that help promote safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems.

Now, just over the past year, the United States and our partners have made remarkable progress in building AI frameworks that promote innovation and more equitable access, while at the same time protecting human rights and safety, working with a wide range of partners in every region.

Our administration worked with leading AI companies on a set of voluntary commitments, like carrying out security tests before they release new products, developing tools to help users recognize AI-generated content.

The U.S. teamed up with our G7 partners to set out guiding principles and a code of conduct to address the impact of advanced AI systems on our societies and on our communities, and we carried this work forward at summits in the United Kingdom and then in Korea.

We put these principles at the heart of a UN General Assembly Resolution on AI that the United States developed. In March, every UN member adopted it by consensus.

And in November, the United States will host an international gathering of AI safety institutes and experts to deepen the technical foundations for implementing these governance frameworks.

In the conversations that I've had the opportunity to have around the world with government colleagues, with entrepreneurs, with advocates, with students, what I've heard is, again, this tremendous sense of optimism about the promise of AI to help tackle the problems that they're facing, to actually improve lives in tangible ways.

And at least from my own experience, I'd say that optimism, that enthusiasm, is even more widely shared in the so-called global majority countries. So today, one of the things our government is doing is putting out new resources to help our partners advance the effort to use AI in ways that actually improve lives: a playbook that identifies key actions that the United States and our development partners can take to harness AI to advance sustainable development; an agenda that sets out the principles, the priorities, the practices of advancing AI research with our international partners.

These resources add to the risk management tool that we shared in back in July, which will help organizations develop and use AI in a way that respects human rights.

Today, we're also announcing a groundbreaking new public-private partnership with leading AI companies to help expand access and capacity in the places and communities where it's needed most, especially in developing countries.

The State Department will partner with Amazon, with Anthropic, with Google, with IBM, with Meta, with Microsoft, with Nvidia, with OpenAI to expand access to AI. The Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI will work to close the gap in three crucial areas: compute, capacity, and context, the three Cs of advancing of equity through artificial intelligence.

First on compute, we're going to expand access to cutting-edge AI models, compute credits, and more open-source tools. This means that developers, researchers, innovators in low-and-middle-income countries will be able to use models and tools that can improve their own AI applications, and better tailor them to local needs and local challenges.

Second, capacity. We will accelerate training efforts to empower people to use and adapt AI tools. Here again, just about everywhere I go, the desire to have a transfer of knowledge to enable countries to genuinely build capacity is one of the things I hear the most. I think this focus on capacity-building will really answer needs that we hear around the world.

Finally, context. We'll work with governments, with businesses, with civil society organizations, with communities to create localized, context-specific datasets, including for indigenous cultures and languages.

To catalyze this partnership, I'm also announcing today that the Department of State and USAID will spend $33 million in U.S. foreign assistance on AI development, with $10 million specifically focused on expanding access. We'll work with Congress to provide $23 million for programs to build on our efforts to develop safe, reliable, and trustworthy AI governance frameworks; use AI to advance human rights and development priorities; and promote educational and cultural exchanges on AI-related topics.

Together, we and our private sector partners are committing over $100 million to this effort.

Now, I'm eager to hand it over to those partners in just a minute. But before I do that, let me remind us of one more reason that this effort is so important. It increases our odds of creating world-changing applications.

AI's lightning evolution is, of course, being powered by rapid advances in data, in chips, in computing, in algorithms. But many of its greatest leaps are being driven not by machines, but by us - human beings, our needs, our hopes, our creativity, our ingenuity.

To get the most out of this transformative technology, we have to give more people in more places the chance to adapt it and to use it for good. None of us - no country, no community, no particular people, have a monopoly on good ideas, on innovation, on problem solving.

And one of the things that I've learned from being in this business for more than 32 years is that for virtually every problem the world faces, I'm convinced that somewhere someone has at least the beginnings of an answer. But we have to find ways to share it, and we have to find ways to empower more people to find it.

The more we unleash human creativity, human ingenuity in every part of this planet, the better off all of us are going to be. And you can just feel palpably how AI can be at the very heart of this endeavor.

So I'm so grateful to all of our partners in today's effort. For me, for the government, particularly working with the private sector, having these public-private partnerships, really is part of the secret sauce of success. And to each of you - thank you, thank you, thank you.

And so to everyone here, please join me in welcoming to the stage our teammates in the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI, with thanks to them and thanks to all of you. Thank you. (Applause.)

MODERATOR: We welcome to the stage from OpenAI, Sam Altman; from Microsoft, Brad Smith; from IBM, Gary Cohn; from Amazon, David Zapolsky; from Google, James Manyika; from Meta, Joelle Pineau; from Nvidia, Ned Finkle; from Anthropic, Sarah Heck. Thank you. (Applause.)

MR ALTMAN: Thank you very much, Secretary Blinken and to all of you. My name is Sam Altman, and I'm the CEO of OpenAI. It's an honor to join you and representatives from the U.S. Department of State, and other tech companies as we formally launch the new Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI.

This program is an important part of our shared goal of expanding access to AI around the world and ensuring that its benefits reach everyone, regardless of where people live or what language they speak.

It's easy to think about AI in terms of the technological leaps themselves, which is advancing very quickly, and every day we can do new things that we would have thought impossible not that long ago. But the real power of AI doesn't come from the systems itself or the technology in the abstract - it comes from people around the world finding new ways to use the technology to solve hard problems and address the challenges facing their communities.

We want to make it easier for more people to use AI to enhance the work they're doing to support those communities. We're committed to making this partnership a success, and that's why I'm excited to announce that we're launching the OpenAI Academy, a new initiative which will give developers and organizations in low- and middle-income countries access to our latest tools and training about how to use them. It's an investment in the future of this technology and those finding new ways to use it. I can't wait to see what comes next, and thank you very much. (Applause.)

MR SMITH: Hello. Good afternoon. I'm Brad Smith, the vice chair and president of Microsoft. Thank you, Secretary Blinken, for this important initiative. I think it's worth remembering that 142 years ago - just four years after Thomas Edison first harnessed the power of electricity - the first power plant started operating here in lower Manhattan. It lit up a dark night. Tonight, more than 14 decades later, there are still 700 million people, and 43 percent of the people in Africa, who will go to bed without access to electricity. This is an initiative to ensure that we do better.

And as part of this initiative, Microsoft this year and next, in 2024 and 2025, commits we will spend more than $12 billion to build out AI data centers in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, in Africa. We will provide more than $500 million of free access to digital technology and compute to more than 30,000 nonprofits across the Global South. We will invest in local skilling. We will enable groups to work with local language AI models. We will help advance local economic development. We are one piece of the American private sector, working together with our government to advance global standards for safety, security, and trust.

We have the opportunity to do something that Thomas Edison never dreamed of doing: to bring AI to everyone In the world - not in the next 150 years but in the decade ahead. It will take all of us to do it. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MR COHN: Hello. I'm Gary Cohn, vice chairman of IBM. First of all, I thought there'd be a bot that would cut us off after 60 seconds - (laugher) - but I guess the AI is not working as well here. Thank you, Secretary Blinken, and your entire team for your leadership in the public-private partnerships and your commitments to promote AI innovation. IBM has been involved in AI for decades and strongly believes that AI is a transformational technology of our time. The world needs innovation, training, and access to technology to create productivity and growth.

IBM has continuously committed to help vulnerable populations address environmental challenges. IBM has extended the IBM sustainability accelerator pledge of providing up to $45 million in expertise and technology, such as AI, by the end of 2028. We work with organizations such as NASA and UNDP to develop valuable datasets to make them more accessible, including the developing countries, for earth sciences, research, and energy equity. IBM provides AI training and access to technology to create a world driven by AI solutions. (Applause.)

MR ZAPOLSKY: There is a real impact on real people's lives when we deploy AI technology responsibly, and Amazon is proud to partner with the U.S. State Department to increase access to AI technology throughout the Global Majority. An example of this type of real-world impact is in Kenya that we've seen, which has one of the largest - highest maternal mortality rates. A nonprofit organization, Jacaranda Health, has AI tools to deploy an affordable and scalable solution through free text exchanges to improve health outcomes. The service includes an AI-enabled help desk, which responds to mothers' questions and sparks a rapid referral chain if a risk is identified. Jacaranda Health now reaches 1.5 million mothers who are more likely to attend prenatal care visits and twice as likely to participate in family planning services.

And later today you'll hear about Farmbyte, a digital agrofood innovator in Malaysia, who is using AWS AI technology, predictive analytics, to improve crop selection and pricing. These are just some of the critical impacts and innovations that we are seeing, and I look forward to seeing what more we can do together. Thank you. (Applause.)

MR MANYIKA: Mr. Secretary, distinguished guests, I've had the pleasure and the honor of co-chairing the UN's high-level body on AI, and we're delighted that in fact our recommendations were part of the Global Digital Compact. One of the key insights from that work was the idea that in fact we have to make sure that AI benefits everyone everywhere, and that we have to make sure that the digital divide doesn't also become the AI divide. And that's why it's really, really important that we're having this conversation. I'm a child of the Global South, so this matters to me personally and very deeply. We're - at Google, we're committed to try to make this a reality in several ways. Let me mention five key specific examples.

First, infrastructure. We're building data centers in about 140 cloud regions around the world. We've been connecting with fiber optic cables - Africa with Asia, Africa with Europe, Africa with itself - in order to bring infrastructure to these places.

Second, the Secretary mentioned the importance of rich diversity of cultural and linguistic diversity. In just over a year we've gone from Google Translate being able to handle 30-something languages to now 246 languages. In fact, we're aiming to get to a thousand languages pretty soon.

Third, most of the Global South is being ravaged by the effects of climate change, so it's going to be quite important to be able to respond to this. We've been deploying AI-enabled tools for flood forecasting. We went from about one country, Bangladesh, about a year ago to now we're doing AI-enabled flood forecasting over 80 countries, covering nearly half a billion people around the world.

Fourth, I think it's important to keep in mind that scientific development happens not just in some countries but should happen in all countries. So I work, for example, with AlphaFold program. AlphaFold program is now being used by over 2 million scientists with all - most of those actually in 190 countries, half of them in the Global South. That's very, very important.

And then finally, people. Let me talk about people. We've been investing a lot in training and giving skills to people. So far we've covered over 100 million people in the last few years, and just the other day we announced a further commitment to spend another 120 million in skills development. These are some of the capabilities that are going to be important if we're going to address these capacity gaps at scale and get to everybody.

So we're delighted about this opportunity and the further commitments we're making to continue this journey. Thank you. (Applause.)

MS PINEAU: Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here. It's been a little over a year since Meta signed on to the voluntary commitments from the White House. Today we are proud to sign onto this new agreement, public-private partnership, to help enable deployment of AI to accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goals.

At Meta, we do believe that open source is crucial for democratizing access to the technology, for spurring economic growth, and for the digital inclusion of the Global South, as well as for increasing transparency and trust in AI systems. In 2004 - 2024-2025, Meta will invest over $10 million in programmatic support for open-source AI innovation. With this investment, we will directly increase access to AI to global communities in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. We will offer grants, training, as well as deployment of open-source AI and Llama to small businesses and governments.

We're also announcing later today a collaboration between UNESCO, Hugging Face, and Meta to leverage our No Language Left Behind model to deliver translation in 200 languages, including indigenous languages. This is in addition to the billions we are investing in training the models and developing them to make sure that they are safe, open, and accessible.

We're grateful for this partnership. We know that this is just the beginning of how we can deploy AI to solve some of society's greatest challenge. Thank you. (Applause.)

MR FINKLE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for the opportunity to be here. Nvidia pioneered accelerated computing to tackle challenges no one else can solve. We empower communities around the world to build and grow local AI ecosystems and develop innovative solutions to some of society's greatest challenges.

Under this partnership, Nvidia is committing $10 million a year in free training programs to upskill AI developers in emerging countries. Nvidia provides compute credits and hardware grants for higher education research universities around the world.

Through Nvidia's Global Inception program, we support nearly 5,000 startups in developing countries through technical support, access to capital, hardware discounts, and free computing credits provided through our cloud partners, many of whom are here today. In 2024 alone this program mobilized more than 60 million in free compute credits for startups in developing countries.

Nvidia is committed to ensuring the benefits of safe, trustworthy AI are accessible and shared by all. Thank you. (Applause.)

MS HECK: Good afternoon. I have the distinction of being the final speaker, which you're probably very pleased about. My name is Sarah Heck, and I represent Anthropic. And we are so pleased to be a part of this partnership today.

I'm actually going to use my time as a call to action. We are an AI lab that tries to be both helpful and harmless. And the call to action today is for all of those people sitting in governments in the Global South, in the Global Majority, that are thinking about how they can use AI. This partnership is for you. Our contribution to this partnership is to ensure teams across governments can help accelerate the global development goals, to make sure - whether you're a team of two people sitting in Uganda or you're a huge team that wants API access to models that is sitting somewhere in Bosnia - we are here to help you today.

So my hope is that if you're watching online or you're sitting in the audience, you're thinking about how are you using AI in your work to build trust, to be helpful and harmless to your citizens, and how we can work together. Thanks so much. (Applause.)

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