ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Welcome to AI X Multilateralism, a new series of conversations on The Next Page.
In this collection, we’re joined by experts who help us unpack the many ideas and issues at the nexus of AI and international cooperation. Our first episode begins with the question: is it ethical to use AI in multilateral deliberations?
We’re joined by Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, Head of Anticipatory Action and Innovation at the UNU-CPR, the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. As a data scientist she’s worked in the private sector and across the UN system, and recently supported the work of the UN's Advisory Body on AI that undertook analysis and made advanced recommendations for the international governance of AI.
In this episode, we explore:
- the meaning of deliberations at the global level and why this is critical for multilateralism
- how AI is being used today in multilateral deliberations and negotiations
- the technical and ethical risks of using AI informally deliberations, including what this means for state sovereignty, authenticity and agency, and
- solutions for turning the tide and harnessing AI ethically, fairly and sustainably by all who participate in multilateral fora through an ethics by design approach.
Interested to find out more?
- Read Eleonore's recommended open source pick, "An Ethical Grey Zone: AI Agents in Political Deliberations": https://carnegiecouncil.org/media/article/ethical-grey-zone-ai-agents-political-deliberation
- Find out about the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI: https://www.un.org/en/ai-advisory-body/about
- Learn about the Global Digital Compact, adopted by Member States in 2024 at the Summit of the Future: https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/global-digital-compact
- Read about the two mechanisms established by the UN General Assembly on 26 August 2025 to strengthen international cooperation on AI governance, the United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance: https://www.un.org/global-digital-compact/en/ai
Content
Guest: Eleonore Fournier-Tombs
Host, production and editing: Natalie Alexander Julien
Recorded & produced at the Commons, United Nations Library & Archives Geneva
Podcast Music credits:
Sequence: https://uppbeat.io/track/img/sequence
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/img/sequence
License code: R8196BLUZNYOYWVB
#AI #Multilateralism #UN #Diplomacy
IN THIS EPISODE
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Welcome to AI and Multilateralism, a playlist of conversations here at the Commons,
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our space at the UN Library and Archives Geneva for sharing knowledge on multilateralism.
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In this series, we're joined by experts who help us unpack the many ideas and
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issues at the nexus of AI and international cooperation.
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Today, we're asking the question, is it ethical to use AI in multilateral deliberations.
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We're joined by Eleanor Fournier-Toombs, Head of Anticipatory Action and Innovation
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at the UNU CPR, the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research.
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There, she leads a team providing strategic advice on AI risk,
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policy, and technology strategy to international agencies, regulators, and executives.
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As a data scientist, she's worked in the private sector and across the UN system.
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And we're diving into her research on the ethics of using AI in multilateral fora.
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Eleanor, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you so much.
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We're recording this during the 80th session of the General Assembly.
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It's a busy week there in New York and a lot of issues are being deliberated,
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one of course being about AI and how it can be governed collectively.
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Later today is going to be the launch of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance
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at the UN, which is one of the two major mechanisms recently established by
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the UN to promote international cooperation on AI governance.
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I'm sure you're very interested to see what happens at the launch today,
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but is there anything else you'd like to share about what's been happening this
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week in discussions on AI?
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Yes, of course. And it is a very exciting time for global AI governance.
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Really, the UN started severely leaning into global AI governance in 2023.
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Before that, we had UNESCO that kind of led with the recommendation on the ethics of AI.
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And then it became much more mainstream in terms of the secretariat's leadership
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and the tech envoy's leadership around the summer of 2023.
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And that's when they established the high-level advisory body on AI,
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which our team provided a lot of research support for.
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And the advisory body came together.
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There was 38 members and they came together for one year where they developed
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recommendations on how the UN could take a leadership role in the risks and opportunities of AI.
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And they came up with seven recommendations, a few of which were adopted in
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the Global Digital Compact last year.
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And now, finally, we're at the implementation of these recommendations.
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And those are the Global Dialogues and the International Scientific Panel on AI.
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So very briefly, the International Scientific Panel on AI, which has also been
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announced and adopted, and now we need to select the 40 members of this panel.
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Its aim is to provide global technical consensus on the risks and opportunities of AI.
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And that's actually quite important because it provides a foundation for all
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of the other policy work that's done by member states.
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We do a lot of this kind of scientific consensus, technical consensus at the UN.
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And although there's no kind of strict policy recommendations that come out
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of it, it's not a convention from part of the human rights framework, for example.
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It's still really important work so that we all kind of agree globally on where
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this technology is going and what we want to do about it.
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And then, as you mentioned, today they're going to launch the Global Dialogues
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on AI, which will be a forum for discussion and deliberation every year and on a regular basis.
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To talk about all the different issues around AI. So for me,
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this week, I've spoken a lot about AI and the environment.
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I think this is a kind of upcoming issue that we're starting to look at very
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seriously, especially with generative
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AI tool that consumes so much more energy than other kinds of AI.
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We've also talked a lot about international standards. So to me,
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international standards in AI are a source of a lot of hope for multilateralism
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because Because although we tend
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to see a convergence on the risks and opportunities of AI more broadly,
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there's not a lot of argument when we say, you know,
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there are potential biases in AI or there's privacy considerations in AI.
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And we also say when we want to use AI for the public good and to improve people's
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lives, we're not arguing immensely.
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But I do feel that there's so much fragmentation when it comes to the solutions to that.
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And international standards are a way forward where a lot of parties,
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whether it's governments, private sector, civil society.
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Different member states with completely different legal philosophy and kind
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of historical approach to technology, they're all kind of coming on board and
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agreeing to put out these standards.
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And so I find that this is a time of a lot of hope for AI governance.
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I think it's bringing a lot of countries together and I really hope that we
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can continue making big strides in international cooperation on these topics.
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It must be interesting for you to see how, based out of the AI advisory body.
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These key recommendations for a scientific panel, a global dialogue,
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this has been adopted by the UN and is being really launched and discussed.
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We're going to be talking a lot in this series about this element of the global
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governance of AI and what that means for multilateralism.
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But a lot of your work and your research is actually looking also at how AI
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is changing the practice of diplomacy, the practice of multilateral deliberation.
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And so I wanted to really touch on that today, the use of AI in multilateral deliberations.
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Can we firstly define deliberation? What does this mean? And why is this important to multilateralism?
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Great question. And I've been working on the topic of deliberation for a really long time.
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And what we're discussing today, the use of AI in global deliberations,
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is part of work that is going to be published in Ethics and International Affairs
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in a few months, which was developed with the help of my deliberation co-author, Michael McKenzie,
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who teaches at Vancouver Island University.
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And I'm mentioning him because we've done a lot of publications and projects
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together on deliberation.
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Deliberation is almost everything that really takes place at the UN Secretariat.
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It's a really core function of setting global goals and objectives and norms.
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And it's a process that member states go to, to exchange ideas and perspectives
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so that they can come together in a type of convergence or decision.
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And so we have deliberation in a lot of political processes.
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When you look at national level government, you know, parliaments,
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that's all deliberation. We start to see also deliberative processes in a kind
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of different way taking place online.
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So a lot of people study the way in which we participate and exchange ideas
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on social media and grow our political opinions.
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And so technology has really been closely intertwined with deliberation for
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about 20 years now because we've been using so many technological platforms
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for this shaping of ideas.
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And so with AI, it's really a fascinating topic because AI also generates new ideas and content.
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And I've been very interested in figuring out how that impacts the global deliberation,
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because it seemed to me that we might be losing a little bit of our autonomy
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and our agency by inserting AI into deliberative processes.
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That's kind of where this article is going and this research is going.
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You mentioned that technology has been intertwined and used in global deliberation
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for already about 20 years.
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What is the state of play now? How is AI being used in global deliberations?
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So now we have, we're about two years in for generative AI.
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I would say that before then, the only way that we would really inject AI in
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global deliberations is through the use of predictive analytics,
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where we could have data and bring data to the table.
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So it's very, very different and not really a source of immense concern.
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I think for generative AI, it's a little bit different because we have what
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I've kind of categorized as these formal uses and informal uses.
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And for formal uses, I mean uses of AI that are explicit, that are intentional
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and that are kind of bounded.
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So that could be, for example, the use of an AI tool as a moderator.
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So we've all seen in Zoom calls and in Teams calls that AI agents can attend
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and take a summary of the meeting.
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There's also been some experiments which have been very fascinating on using
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AI in a more separate platform from our regular tools and having the AI tool not only summarize,
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but point out areas of convergence and divergence so that the participants would
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be able to go deeper into these topics and understand where is the position of different players.
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We're very big on inclusion here at the UN, and it is difficult for people to
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come to deliberative forums in person.
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And it's also challenging to participate, everybody at the same time,
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when there's hundreds of people waiting for their turn to speak,
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and are people really discussing amongst themselves, or are they doing kind
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of what we call in deliberation, positional politics.
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So we see a lot of that at the UN this week is that every party is coming in
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with their written script and they're just speaking and then the next person
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speaks and they're not referring to each other's content.
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And that's not good deliberation. That's just kind of positional.
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And so formal uses of AI have a potential to support some of these and just
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improve the quality of deliberation and improve participation and inclusion
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and diversity of perspectives.
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So in that way, I am optimistic.
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Where I wanted to raise the alarm a little bit and just bring diplomats and
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other policymakers on the global stage into this conversation is the informal uses of AI.
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And where I think it's very critical to reflect is where AI tools are writing
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people's speeches and interpreting the speeches and the contributions of others without any filters.
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And we started to see this a couple of years ago and the way in which I started
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to observe this is in duplication.
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So you would see a senior policymaker who maybe had not had time to write speaking
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points, you would hear them speak and then you would hear the next person say the same sentences.
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And the reason why this happened is because, you know, AI tools,
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generative AI tools actually only have a very limited creativity and they can't
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replace what is happening inside your brain.
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And so it would kind of regenerate the same talking points over and over again.
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And so people were repeating themselves.
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That's the only way that you would really know that this is happening.
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So for me, it actually brought up a whole bunch of different issues that are
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a little bit beyond what we speak about with regular AI risk conversation.
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So with regular AI risk, we're talking about things like bias,
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exclusion, we're talking about hallucinations.
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And I think these are all continue to be challenges that we face in AI,
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but there's something around AI in global deliberations that's very unique.
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You mentioned that a lot of discussion today is on the technical risks of AI,
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like bias, exclusion, a lack of languages, hallucinations, environmental issues.
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But you also, in your research, look much deeper at the ethical issues.
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And some that you refer to in your work are ideas like technological determinism,
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sovereignty and self-determination, the actual legitimacy of global deliberations
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themselves, if we continue down this way of mostly informal use of AI and AI agents.
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Could we explore that a little bit further? What do we mean by technological determinism?
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In this work, we've identified three different areas of concern.
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And as you mentioned, there's determinism.
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We also have this idea of state sovereignty and self-determination,
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which I think is a little bit compromised, with AI and authenticity.
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So for technological determinism, that's the idea that all events,
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including human actions and thoughts, are caused by forces external to free will.
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So it's a kind of a philosophical idea, and particularly are caused by technology that we're using.
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And so the idea is that the medium itself and a technological tool that is being
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used is shaping people's ideas and people's free will.
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So to me, this is extremely relevant
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today, because we're having our ideas shaped actively by AI tools.
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And my concern is that because the UN is focused on developing global norms
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and objectives and decisions that are going to shape the future of humanity and of the earth,
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to what extent are these ideas shaped by the technology that we're using itself?
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And I think it's really important to take a step back and say every single action
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where we just put in a prompt and say,
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write my whole speaking points and don't check and don't apply a critical perspective,
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you're not the one who is contributing those ideas into the deliberation.
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An AI tool is contributing those ideas based on training data and random things
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on the internet and whatever guardrails are in place by the generative AI tool.
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And in a deliberation, the convergence and the consensus is based on all of
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the individual inputs and then the way in which they kind of mesh together and
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that people discuss and come up with new ideas.
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And so if each of the individual inputs start becoming compromised in this way,
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I think it's really a source of concern and something that we should take a
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step back and really think about the impact that that might have.
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So if we're all using AI in writing speeches, in how we deliberate,
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in multilateral settings, the technology itself is thinking for us. So that's my concern.
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We certainly do not have to use AI that way.
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Generative AI tools have a lot of power and can do a lot of different things.
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And so I'm a data scientist. I'm not against technology in any way.
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But I don't think that we should allow generative AI tools to do our thinking
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for us, especially when we're active participants in global deliberations.
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So a generative AI tool can help in a lot of different ways.
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It can help with a little bit of research. It can help to structure ideas.
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It can help to summarize what you wanted to say, maybe to some speaking points.
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But every time that people are entering a deliberation unprepared and have not
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really thought what they wanted to say, and they're just putting a prompt or
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putting a speech by another member state into AI and getting a response,
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that's where you're losing your own participation.
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And I think that then goes to another level because the UN is also a forum for
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deliberation for member states.
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And so each state, each country that is part of the UN is responsible for their
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own country and for the decisions that they're going to be participating in.
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So the UN is not a global government that has authority over its member states.
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The member states ultimately have their own freedom and self-determination.
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And so they willingly participate in negotiations. They willingly participate
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in conventions and agreements and in shaping ideas at the UN.
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And so if the positions of member states are drafted by AI agents rather than
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by a diplomatic representative of the citizens of that state,
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the states themselves are not being authentically represented.
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And again, what we would see if we took this exercise to the fullest,
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we would see that each state is actually representing the same kind of ideas
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mashed up from the internet.
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And we can also add that there is certainly only a few states that provide the
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generative AI tools and only a few states that are overrepresented in the training data.
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So that would mean that you would have an over-representation of the ideas coming
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from these states, these kind of AI powers, and an under-representation of ideas
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coming authentically from the other member states.
00:17:47.152 --> 00:17:51.292
And so you would have a very, very strange situation from my perspective,
00:17:51.652 --> 00:17:59.152
where the real needs and perspectives of the citizens and residents of UN member
00:17:59.152 --> 00:18:05.172
states would no longer be very clearly articulated and represented on a global stage.
00:18:05.172 --> 00:18:11.072
So on that note of self-determination and looking at how global deliberations
00:18:11.072 --> 00:18:16.392
are a space for all countries, all member states to bring forth their ideas,
00:18:16.672 --> 00:18:22.672
their values, their priorities for global development, what would you say is
00:18:22.672 --> 00:18:27.552
the biggest risk in terms of self-determination if we continue to use AI in these ways?
00:18:27.552 --> 00:18:29.772
I think there's two things.
00:18:30.012 --> 00:18:34.012
One of them is that we're going to run out of good ideas.
00:18:34.312 --> 00:18:38.452
I think the only way that we can have really good and long-lasting solutions
00:18:38.452 --> 00:18:43.732
at the UN is if we have real diversity of perspective and creativity.
00:18:44.352 --> 00:18:49.212
And I just don't see that with a generative AI tool at scale.
00:18:49.352 --> 00:18:50.852
I think we have to represent ourselves.
00:18:51.512 --> 00:18:56.672
And the other thing is loss of legitimacy. So if we see that member states are
00:18:56.672 --> 00:19:02.552
not really representing their citizens, the citizens are going to lose faith in the organization.
00:19:02.932 --> 00:19:07.092
And that's something we sometimes forget at the UN is that this is member state
00:19:07.092 --> 00:19:08.872
contributions that's running the UN.
00:19:09.012 --> 00:19:11.952
And that comes from income tax and from other kinds of taxes.
00:19:12.392 --> 00:19:16.532
And so if people feel that they're no longer being authentically represented,
00:19:16.532 --> 00:19:18.212
they're going to lose faith in
00:19:18.212 --> 00:19:21.892
the UN system. And so we're threatening the multilateral system at large.
00:19:22.573 --> 00:19:27.193
You mentioned authenticity. Can we explore a bit more what this means in terms of our agency?
00:19:27.373 --> 00:19:32.313
Because you also look at something called epistemic agency and genuine agency.
00:19:32.833 --> 00:19:35.693
Can you break that down for us in terms of what it means for multilateralism?
00:19:36.493 --> 00:19:41.653
Yes. So authenticity is, again, one of these kind of political theory terms,
00:19:41.853 --> 00:19:46.653
which means the degree to which a political representative is considered to
00:19:46.653 --> 00:19:50.973
be genuine and true and aligned with what they say that they're going to be done.
00:19:50.973 --> 00:19:56.073
So it's very important when in democracy, we elect political representatives
00:19:56.073 --> 00:20:02.013
that they're believable and we can consider them authentic to the ideas that they're representing.
00:20:02.413 --> 00:20:07.573
So either they're not necessarily part of a community, but they understand the
00:20:07.573 --> 00:20:11.113
community and are going to really represent their perspectives.
00:20:11.133 --> 00:20:15.813
Or often we like electing people that are a member of a certain community that
00:20:15.813 --> 00:20:20.053
we feel they've experienced, they have lived experience. And so that's where
00:20:20.053 --> 00:20:22.513
authenticity is really critical.
00:20:22.773 --> 00:20:27.173
And this idea of agency is very connected to this.
00:20:27.353 --> 00:20:33.073
Agency is the idea that we have an impact on the political decisions that are
00:20:33.073 --> 00:20:35.213
being made. We can choose. We have choice.
00:20:35.473 --> 00:20:42.053
And if political decisions are made by non-human forces, we lose agency in terms
00:20:42.053 --> 00:20:45.433
of where we're going to go as a world.
00:20:46.078 --> 00:20:51.418
And I think that's really important because we shouldn't feel that we're kind
00:20:51.418 --> 00:20:55.238
of passively watching the global and geopolitical events.
00:20:55.398 --> 00:20:59.298
And I think a lot of the times these days, there's just been a lot of change
00:20:59.298 --> 00:21:04.518
and a lot of movement and a lot of concerning events on the geopolitical stage.
00:21:04.798 --> 00:21:09.358
And many people have felt a loss of agency, both from a political perspective
00:21:09.358 --> 00:21:11.418
and from a technological perspective.
00:21:12.078 --> 00:21:18.358
So, so many conversations that I've had have been around this idea of AI is
00:21:18.358 --> 00:21:20.298
coming and there's nothing I can do about it.
00:21:20.398 --> 00:21:25.618
I'm kind of losing my sense of being able to shape the life that I have.
00:21:25.798 --> 00:21:31.658
And so it goes down not only to at the global level, but also at the very individual
00:21:31.658 --> 00:21:37.458
level where people are saying, I don't know the kind of world that my children are going to grow up in.
00:21:37.458 --> 00:21:41.678
And I don't know if I can really guarantee that I'm going to be able to pay
00:21:41.678 --> 00:21:47.818
for my rent and have meaningful work because I feel that I'm losing my sense
00:21:47.818 --> 00:21:50.098
of self and agency to these AI tools.
00:21:50.398 --> 00:21:54.458
And so this issue that we're seeing at the multilateral level,
00:21:54.618 --> 00:21:57.478
it really drills down also to the individual level.
00:21:57.618 --> 00:22:02.278
And that's why we need to understand our approach to these tools and really
00:22:02.278 --> 00:22:04.918
change our mindset when it comes to using them.
00:22:04.918 --> 00:22:10.278
When we look at how we approach it, because AI is part of our world everywhere,
00:22:10.558 --> 00:22:14.158
and you mentioned also when it's formally embedded, the real benefits it can
00:22:14.158 --> 00:22:15.738
bring to multilateral deliberations.
00:22:16.358 --> 00:22:20.098
Thinking of member states that maybe don't have the same resources as bigger
00:22:20.098 --> 00:22:24.658
ones, what are the risks that we don't use AI and how can it be used in a way
00:22:24.658 --> 00:22:26.998
that's of benefit to all in multilateral fora?
00:22:27.678 --> 00:22:32.118
So that's a great question. And actually, it's very unique to the structure of the UN.
00:22:32.418 --> 00:22:35.898
And it's something that we do bring up also, because it needs to be addressed,
00:22:36.078 --> 00:22:38.458
is the question of resources.
00:22:39.038 --> 00:22:46.838
So one of the reasons that member states might adopt generative AI is because of productivity gains.
00:22:46.838 --> 00:22:51.758
Many member states that are represented in the UN, so in New York and in Geneva,
00:22:52.098 --> 00:22:54.598
have very, very small permanent missions.
00:22:54.978 --> 00:22:59.338
There might only be one person or two people that are really following a number
00:22:59.338 --> 00:23:02.098
of different issues, and they're very, very, very strained.
00:23:02.758 --> 00:23:08.138
So what they will argue is that if they're able to use generative AI to accelerate
00:23:08.138 --> 00:23:14.078
their work, then they will be more often represented in these different deliberative
00:23:14.078 --> 00:23:16.138
forums because otherwise they can't even attend.
00:23:16.538 --> 00:23:22.958
This is an issue because the G7 countries, for example, have really big permanent missions.
00:23:23.238 --> 00:23:27.338
So this is a little bit of a trap where the under-resourced countries are going
00:23:27.338 --> 00:23:30.698
to say, well, this is increasing our capability and our capacity.
00:23:31.398 --> 00:23:34.778
However, we need to keep in mind, again, how it's being used.
00:23:35.018 --> 00:23:40.918
If we have an AI agent that is now writing the perspective of a small member
00:23:40.918 --> 00:23:45.038
state, the member state may believe that now they're being authentically represented
00:23:45.038 --> 00:23:49.178
to a greater extent and there's more inclusion on the global stage.
00:23:49.298 --> 00:23:55.238
But that is not necessarily the case because whose perspective is that agent really representing?
00:23:55.238 --> 00:23:59.478
That needs to be acknowledged, first of all, because it will be a huge incentive
00:23:59.478 --> 00:24:02.958
for adoption, particularly the informal uses.
00:24:02.958 --> 00:24:07.518
So once we acknowledge this idea and acknowledge that if it's not used properly,
00:24:07.518 --> 00:24:12.758
it could actually have the inverse effect of what smaller member states are hoping to achieve,
00:24:12.978 --> 00:24:18.438
then we can start thinking about solutions and hopefully being able to still
00:24:18.438 --> 00:24:23.918
increase productivity and use a very powerful tool, but without really undermining
00:24:23.918 --> 00:24:27.858
state representation and sovereignty and agency.
00:24:28.542 --> 00:24:33.782
So let's talk about solutions then. How can we ensure that AI can be leveraged
00:24:33.782 --> 00:24:38.042
ethically, fairly, sustainably in global deliberations?
00:24:38.202 --> 00:24:40.002
What do we need to do to make that happen?
00:24:40.422 --> 00:24:47.382
I think that addressing the specific use of generative AI tools right now is really important.
00:24:47.862 --> 00:24:51.142
There's a couple of broader issues that really need to be addressed.
00:24:51.142 --> 00:24:57.222
For example, the whole question of privacy and the type of data that the AI
00:24:57.222 --> 00:24:58.682
tools are being built upon.
00:24:59.262 --> 00:25:05.962
So increasingly, we're finding solutions where AI tools are able to be enclosed,
00:25:05.962 --> 00:25:11.062
where what happens in the relationship or the kind of interaction with the AI
00:25:11.062 --> 00:25:14.982
tool is not going back to the kind of main training model.
00:25:14.982 --> 00:25:17.602
And that's really important in terms of confidentiality.
00:25:17.902 --> 00:25:22.462
That's something that needs to be brought up as well. And that's why uses of
00:25:22.462 --> 00:25:25.862
AI need to be disclosed so that you can make sure that they're secure.
00:25:26.482 --> 00:25:31.602
There's a possibility increasingly of having AI tools that are trained on your
00:25:31.602 --> 00:25:36.062
country's own documentation and policy frameworks.
00:25:36.342 --> 00:25:39.382
That's extremely important. You can only do that if you're intentional.
00:25:39.862 --> 00:25:44.582
And so what we propose in our research is this idea of ethics by design.
00:25:44.982 --> 00:25:49.502
And to really thinking through, how are we going to avoid these traps?
00:25:49.822 --> 00:25:55.142
And for me, it's a question of intentionality. So this idea of designing the
00:25:55.142 --> 00:25:59.762
tool that is going to be used by diplomats and policymakers in such a way that
00:25:59.762 --> 00:26:05.762
it's very uniquely connected to the data and information and policy positions
00:26:05.762 --> 00:26:08.322
that you want to represent.
00:26:08.642 --> 00:26:12.982
So that's more of a technical perspective, but it can only be done if people disclose.
00:26:13.716 --> 00:26:18.236
So the question of disclosure, I think, is also important. We're in a transition
00:26:18.236 --> 00:26:23.276
period in our use of AI, where people are a little bit worried about being called out.
00:26:23.616 --> 00:26:28.336
We have a very kind of mixed approach to AI, because on the one hand,
00:26:28.476 --> 00:26:33.696
we're saying, let's have wide-reaching AI adoption, and let's have inclusion,
00:26:34.156 --> 00:26:36.556
and bridge the digital divide through AI.
00:26:36.776 --> 00:26:41.776
And on the other hand, when people are using AI in their day-to-day work, they can be shamed.
00:26:41.776 --> 00:26:47.236
So the idea of disclosure is something that I saw at the Brookings Institution.
00:26:47.236 --> 00:26:53.856
They published a really interesting disclosure policy where there's open dialogue
00:26:53.856 --> 00:26:57.536
inside a policy team and a research team on use of AI.
00:26:58.076 --> 00:27:03.416
And researchers explain and talk about where they're actually using AI so that
00:27:03.416 --> 00:27:08.436
it can be brought to light. So we don't necessarily need to disclose our use
00:27:08.436 --> 00:27:10.216
of AI in a deliberative process.
00:27:10.616 --> 00:27:13.336
You don't need to stand in front of the general assembly and say,
00:27:13.516 --> 00:27:15.496
I use AI to write my speech.
00:27:15.496 --> 00:27:21.196
But certainly thinking through how am I going to talk about this with supervisor
00:27:21.196 --> 00:27:25.816
peers and make sure that it's being used responsibly is super important.
00:27:25.816 --> 00:27:32.016
And it'll help take away the shame, which also helps use it from a very critical
00:27:32.016 --> 00:27:36.856
perspective and not kind of like as a blanket thinking for me tool.
00:27:37.036 --> 00:27:38.276
So that's really important.
00:27:38.841 --> 00:27:44.041
And I think what I really want to do with this is also start having dialogue
00:27:44.041 --> 00:27:46.081
around AI tools and deliberations.
00:27:46.361 --> 00:27:50.541
I think we need to talk more about this and be more open and honest.
00:27:50.741 --> 00:27:55.061
I do feel that this idea, for example, of AI tools now being kind of invited
00:27:55.061 --> 00:27:59.561
to a lot of dialogues at the UN, especially the online ones,
00:27:59.701 --> 00:28:03.661
some of which are formal dialogues, member state mandated formal discussions,
00:28:03.701 --> 00:28:05.021
and you have an AI tool there.
00:28:05.241 --> 00:28:10.121
People have not been choosing this. There hasn't been any conversation about
00:28:10.121 --> 00:28:11.861
what is this AI tool doing?
00:28:12.261 --> 00:28:16.701
Where is this information and data doing? Has there been any consideration of
00:28:16.701 --> 00:28:19.021
the data leakages that are happening?
00:28:19.501 --> 00:28:23.821
So that's where I think we need to have a lot more conversation and be very,
00:28:23.941 --> 00:28:28.521
very intentional and specific in the way in which we're going to use AI.
00:28:29.141 --> 00:28:32.781
I'm sure there's a lot that's going to happen in this space as you work on this.
00:28:33.241 --> 00:28:36.001
Thank you so much for sharing all of this knowledge with us today.
00:28:36.121 --> 00:28:39.101
We wish you the best as you continue this research and look at the ethics of
00:28:39.101 --> 00:28:40.861
AI use in deliberations.
00:28:41.221 --> 00:28:46.481
Is there an open source resource you'd like to share with our listeners if they'd like to learn a bit more?
00:28:47.001 --> 00:28:53.061
Yes, I'm happy to share the blog post on Carnegie Council for Ethics in International
00:28:53.061 --> 00:28:56.981
Affairs where some of these ideas began to be developed.
00:28:57.501 --> 00:29:02.621
And our paper will be published shortly. And so I'll make sure to share it so
00:29:02.621 --> 00:29:04.961
that you can add it to the podcast page.
00:29:05.221 --> 00:29:10.141
I think there'll be many more of these publications coming up soon. Really interesting.
00:29:10.681 --> 00:29:13.801
Eleanor Fornia-Toumbs, thank you so much for joining us. See you soon.
00:29:13.861 --> 00:29:16.281
Take care. Thank you so much. It was great to be here.