- In today’s CEO Daily: Women leaders are moving the AI debate beyond who builds the best model.
- The big leadership story: Jensen Huang dismisses an AI doomsday
- The markets: Mostly up globally after an AI-led rally in the U.S. on Monday.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. It’s the most wonderful time of the year in New York City—if you like talking about geopolitics, climate action and AI. At Climate Week, the United Nations General Assembly, and related gatherings, a key theme is how leaders can build the infrastructure, guardrails and partnerships to make AI sustainable and accessible to all.
On the climate side, there’s the literal challenge of how we power the AI revolution: the data centers, the energy sources, the critical minerals, the financing, all of it. The Iran War has sent oil prices surging and federal policy shifts have stalled investments in clean energy at a time when other countries are pushing forward and business is calling for everything, everywhere all at once on the energy front. And of course there are bigger questions about the environmental toll of AI, not to mention the societal impact as policymakers impose moratoriums on data center buildouts, citing concerns about everything from water use to grid reliability.
On the geopolitical side, there’s the debate about safety standards, job disruption, the growing power of those building the models, chips, and infrastructure. It doesn’t help that the five “hoarse” men of the apocalypse—as I now think of Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jensen Huang—are busy debating whether AI will kill us.
A dinner I moderated last night with women leaders, hosted by the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) in collaboration with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, offered a more useful frame. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was there, as was UN Women Executive Director Dr. Sima Sami Bahous, along with high-level ministers, ambassadors and corporate leaders from around the world. As DCO Secretary-General Deemah Al Yahya told me, the goal is to promote women’s participation in the digital economy, from shaping policy priorities and business models to building resilience and shared prosperity. The conversation was less about AI as an abstract existential force than as a practical reality that is impacting skills training, energy priorities, safety concerns, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Can a fragmented world work together to get this done? The U.S. may dominate the playing field when it comes to LLMs, but the opportunities for partnership are wide open. I met yesterday with Éléonore Caroit, French Minister Delegate for the Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad. She talked about why France has attracted the most foreign direct investment in Europe and is partnering with allies like Canada in new ways. “If you look at Europe, you see a pole of stability: countries that have managed to work together and create a very large market, with rules and predictability. In a world of uncertainty, that matters to investors.”
For me, it’s a reminder that the AI race is less about technological supremacy than creating a sustainable societal good. It’s a test of state capacity and corporate leadership, a battle to not only build clean power but create credible rules, career paths and capabilities that benefit the many.
Tough questions, but I bet the best answer won’t come from the loudest men in the room. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
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