Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has said the world is standing at the end of one civilisation and the beginning of another, arguing that the current civilisation has failed in its fundamental responsibility, according to a press release Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War in Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on Thursday last (July 16), Professor Yunus said the civilisation now ending had failed in its central task.
"We have destroyed the planet," he said, describing self-destructiveness as an ingredient built into the current age.
He identified environmental destruction and the growing concentration of wealth as the two main forces behind the collapse, saying neither had been adequately addressed by existing systems.
Turning to artificial intelligence (AI), Professor Yunus questioned the notion that technological advances alone could solve these problems. He said AI would not reverse the concentration of wealth but would instead accelerate it by placing greater resources in fewer hands.
On concerns over AI-driven job losses, he argued that the deeper issue was not the disappearance of jobs but an economic system that had trained people to become job seekers rather than creators and innovators.
Professor Yunus placed young people at the centre of his address, describing today's generation as the smartest in human history because of its access to information and its willingness to challenge authority and existing systems of governance.
He said the priority was not to tell young people what to do, but to ask them what kind of world they wanted to build and what was missing from the one they had inherited. "Most of our own ideas are becoming irrelevant," he told the Assembly.
"We should create a future world that we can truly be proud of," he said, inviting delegates and young participants to present concrete ideas during the Assembly.
The Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War brought together Nobel laureates, former heads of state and government, religious leaders and young people from around the world.
At the opening ceremony, remarks were also delivered by Cardinal Fabio Baggio, President of Borgo Laudato Si'; Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; and Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, President of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly and President Emeritus of the Domus Communis Foundation.
Among those attending the Assembly were Professor Daniel Holz, Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences; Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life; actress Sharon Stone; and other distinguished guests.
During the Assembly, Nobel laureates, including Romano Prodi, Jody Williams, Maria Ressa, Denis Mukwege and Juan Manuel Santos, signed a joint declaration warning that the convergence of artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons poses an unprecedented threat to the future of humanity.
The Assembly concluded on July 16 with a public ceremony at Capitoline Hill in Rome, where Nobel laureates, former heads of state and government, and religious leaders gathered for the presentation and signing of the Rome Declaration on an Unarmed and Disarming Peace in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons.