Bloomberg Talks Sep 17, 2026
With Khalilur Rahman, President of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly
More than 125 heads of state and heads of government are due in New York for next week's high-level segment of the General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman said. He took the gavel of the 81st session about a week before this interview.
Outgoing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named artificial intelligence as one of three existential threats to the world, alongside the climate crisis and growing inequality, and the UN's own global dialogue on AI is not scheduled until March. Rahman said that timetable is too slow for a technology moving this fast.
"We did it when it came to human cloning. We did it when it came to nuclear technology and non-proliferation. This is non-proliferation on steroids."
Rahman was his government's high representative for Rohingya issues before taking the presidency, and says he spent many hours inside the camps in Bangladesh. He now presides over the body that will appoint the next Secretary-General.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 6 arguments that matter.
Key Takeaways
The high-level week will bring more than 125 heads of state and government, which Rahman treats as evidence of the Assembly's convening power
Rahman says trust and confidence in the UN has declined, and rebuilding it is what he is watching most closely this session
On the next Secretary-General he will follow the Charter: one name from the Security Council, and he acts on it
AI brings three problems in his account — job losses, a digital divide between countries, and an existential risk he compares to nuclear non-proliferation
Governments do not have the principal role in AI, so the UN has to bring in innovators, industry and users
On Gaza and Iran his answer is the UN as a venue: last year's meeting between the US and several Muslim countries produced the Gaza Peace Plan
1. A Heavier Gavel
Rahman opened by describing the scale of the coming week and what he intends to do with it. He said the Assembly will hear from leaders on old and new issues, from active conflicts to AI, and then look for areas of agreement to build into agreed actions. He named declining trust in the institution as the problem he is most focused on.
"I took the gavel from my predecessor about a week ago. It felt heavier than I thought." — Khalilur Rahman
"So one of the things that I look very intently at is, at a time when the trust and confidence in the UN has arguably declined, what are the ways we can bring it back up?" — Khalilur Rahman
2. Naming the Next UN Chief
Rahman's term overlaps with the selection of a new Secretary-General, a process now under way. Asked whether he would insist on a shortlist rather than a single nominee from the Security Council, he declined to press for one. He said no multiple-name slate has been advanced in the last nine instances, and that the Assembly's role is to interview candidates rather than to widen the field. Candidates have been coming forward, and he said he cannot predict whether more will.
"So if the words of the Charter are kept by the Security Council members and they send me one name, I'll act on that one name." — Khalilur Rahman
"But what happens is when a candidate announces, he or her — we invite them to the General Assembly and explain their vision and their work program and have an interactive dialogue with the larger membership." — Khalilur Rahman
3. The Three AI Risks
Rahman said innovation itself should not be restrained, and then set out three consequences he wants addressed. The first is job losses; he cited a coder-displacement point made by a guest named Francesca on the program before his. The second is the gap between countries that opened when the internet arrived, which he wants to avoid repeating. The third is the survival question raised by technology executives in recent days.
"First of all, the innovation part must not stop. We should continue innovation, and the doors to that should be open." — Khalilur Rahman
"So this creative destruction of this new technology, I would like it to be more on the creative side than the destructive side." — Khalilur Rahman
"We have heard from technology leaders in the last few days that a super-smart AI with sentient characteristics might eventually even replace us as a species." — Khalilur Rahman
"So if it is a question of survival of the fittest, I'm not sure where we humans stand on the scale." — Khalilur Rahman
4. Opening the UN's Doors
Asked whether the UN still has the standing to organize the world around AI, or whether the superpowers and the companies will settle it between them, Rahman conceded the structural problem. The organization is built around governments, and on this subject governments are not the ones building the technology. His answer is to bring the builders, the industry and the people affected inside the process rather than treating them as outsiders.
"But in the innovations in regard to AI, the governments do not have the principal role." — Khalilur Rahman
"International cooperation is the answer, and we cannot do it by having the states alone." — Khalilur Rahman
5. Iran, Gaza and Dialogue
On the unresolved conflicts due to be raised during the high-level week — Gaza, Ukraine and Iran — Rahman offered the UN as a venue rather than an arbiter. He pointed to last year's session, where the United States met a number of Muslim countries and, he said, the Gaza Peace Plan came out of that discussion.
"You see, the solution to any of these problems lies in dialogue. And that's what we do in the United Nations: get the various actors together." — Khalilur Rahman
6. Lessons From the Rohingya
Rahman is from Bangladesh and handled the Rohingya file for his government. The interviewer asked what nine years of that crisis teaches about Gaza, now three years in. Rahman said the issue nearly disappeared before an international conference brought it back to the UN last year, and that he now sees parties beginning to talk. His lesson is about the gap between a diplomatic timetable and the people waiting on it.
"And we might take time in agreeing on solutions, but in the meanwhile, it's very important that we don't forget that lives are at stake." — Khalilur Rahman
Bonus Insights
Rahman said the convening power of the General Assembly is itself the argument for the institution, and described his own method as hearing the leaders out and then sifting their views for common ground. He also said support for people already displaced is one of the things the UN does well, separate from whether a political settlement is close.
Rahman's bottom line is that AI governance cannot wait for the UN's scheduled March dialogue, and that it cannot be written by governments alone.
Books & Resources Mentioned
The United Nations Charter (Rahman said it settles the Secretary-General question: the Security Council recommends a candidate, the General Assembly appoints)
The Gaza Peace Plan (Rahman said it came out of a meeting between the United States and a number of Muslim countries during last year's General Assembly)
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