Return to Transcripts main page

Connect the World

Iran-U.S. Talks Proceed After Israel Pulls Plan to Strike Beirut; Iran Signals U.S. Talks Ongoing but Warns Israel Over Lebanon; Iran Seeks Release of $12b in Frozen Assets Upon Signing Deal; Large-scale Russian Strikes on Key Ukrainian Cities Overnight; At Least 18 Killed and Dozens Injured in Overnight Russian Attacks. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired June 02, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNNI HOST: Well, it certainly suggests a quiet scene in Beirut, Lebanon this hour. Iran-U.S. talks are back on after a shaky 24

hours, including a reportedly fiery phone call between the U.S. and Israeli leaders. It is 04:00 p.m. there in Beirut.

It is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson from our Middle East programming headquarters. This is "Connect the World". Also coming up, at

least 18 people have been killed in a massive barrage of Russian strikes on Ukraine. One of the latest details for you, and as artificial intelligence

giant Anthropic paves the way for an IPO.

We'll look at whether the big dollar valuations match real world demand. And the stock market in New York opens about 30 minutes from now. And the

futures market indicating a slightly weaker open, more on that half an hour from now. Well, just about 24 hours ago, it did look like diplomacy between

Iran and the U.S. was coming off the tracks.

Now that process does appear to be moving again, however shakily. Here's where we stand right now. Iranian media indicate that indirect talks

between Tehran and Washington are ongoing reporting that a proposed ceasefire agreement is still under discussion in Tehran, that is, despite a

report yesterday that Tehran was pulling out in negotiations over Israel's military actions in Lebanon.

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump says he turned the situation around with a phone call to the Israeli Prime Minister. However, the strikes between

Israel and Hezbollah continued overnight in Southern Lebanon. Let's get the view from Israel and our Jerusalem Correspondent, Jeremy Diamond.

Let's start with what sort of deal we understand was struck to avert what were the major Israeli strikes threatened on Beirut, which had people, of

course, evacuating the southern suburbs this time yesterday, Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. It was just 24 hours ago that the Israeli military issued this new evacuation

order for those southern suburbs of Beirut sending people scrambling away from that area towards other parts of the city or outside of Beirut

altogether.

And it seemed very much like there was an imminent Israeli plan to carry out a major set of bombings in the Lebanese capital, the first major

bombings we would have seen of that capital since the ceasefire with Iran and ultimately in Lebanon came together nearly two months ago, but instead,

what took place was a phone call, quite a dramatic phone call, between the Israeli Prime Minister and President Trump, where President Trump basically

compelled the Israeli Prime Minister to call off those planned strikes in Beirut.

And in exchange for that, it seems that what the American government secured through Lebanese intermediaries was Hezbollah's agreement to no

longer carry out strikes deeper into Northern Israel against Israeli cities, which we had started to see with increasing -- in increasing

numbers over the course of the last week, with, you know, rockets falling in or near Northern Israeli cities, like Nahariyya, like Akko, deeper than

the kind of northern confrontation line in Northern Israel.

Where most of that Hezbollah rocket and drone fire had previously been directed. And so now we have a situation where effectively the Israelis are

saying we won't strike Beirut as long as Hezbollah doesn't carry out strikes on Israeli territory, civilian -- against civilians in northern

Israel.

What we've seen today so far is a continuation, however, of Israeli strikes in Southern Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah rocket attacks against Israeli

troops in Southern Lebanon, and also against Israeli military positions closest to the Lebanese border in Northern Israel.

And the Israeli Defense Minister is laying out quite a clear position now, which is that quote there will no longer be a situation in which Beirut

remains quiet, he says, while Israeli communities are under attack. And so basically the Israeli government is now trying to use this as a card in the

future that should there be Hezbollah attacks again.

It's not exactly clear where the line is, but somewhere on Israeli soil in -- against Israeli communities, then Israel will carry out attacks against

Beirut.

[09:05:00]

But for the time being it seems like there been this kind of tentative agreement reached here.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

DIAMOND: That's allowing the diplomatic track to move forward in Washington, where we're seeing what I believe is the fourth meeting now

between Lebanese and Israeli officials mediated by the United States. And critically, it's also keeping the Iran negotiations alive as well.

ANDERSON: So, Jeremy, Tehran, of course, ties Israeli action in Lebanon to any agreement with the United States to end its conflict with Iran. Donald

Trump says he thinks an agreement with Iran is within reach in the next week. Credible, at this point, we believe.

DIAMOND: I mean, it certainly seems possible, but of course we can't look at that without looking at President Trump's previous statements about how

imminent a deal might be. And the reporting that you know was coming out of the White House just over a week ago was that a deal seemed to be imminent

between Washington and Tehran.

That was later walked back to say that they needed a few more days of discussions, then you had President Trump reviewing a proposal that he

could have signed off on, but instead asking for more amendments, you know, sending this document back for additional negotiations with Tehran.

So, you know, it's hard to say, because any one sentence in this agreement can result in additional days of negotiations in order to get it to a place

where both sides are happy and feel like they can sell this deal to their respective domestic audiences. So, it's certainly a possibility, but we

don't know exactly how close these two sides are.

And President Trump has not been the most reliable narrator, frankly, of diplomatic progress in these negotiations. What is clear, though, is that

there is still, you know, points of contention over some of the wording on Iran's commitments to not pursue a nuclear weapon.

The Iranians are also very vociferously talking about the importance of receiving the funding, the frozen funds that are set to be released to them

at the front end of this deal, which seems to kind of go against President Trump's, you know, attempts to, you know, avoid any comparison to the Obama

era nuclear deal with Iran, when he talked about the pallets of cash that Iran had received.

So, you know this is still a minefield, and until these two sides have, you know, agreement on everything. We know that this negotiation is not over

yet, and that's also why we've heard President Trump say, I'm not in a rush. You know, we can continue with this, we can keep this blockade in

place.

He believes time is on his side, but the problem, Becky, is so do the Iranians.

ANDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. Jeremy, good to have you. Jeremy is in Jerusalem today, where it is just after five past four. Last hour, CNN

spoke with one of the reporters who broke the story about a heated phone call U.S. President Donald Trump is said to have had with the Israeli Prime

Minister on Monday.

Sources say Trump was very upset about Israel's plans to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut. Here's Barak Ravid, a Global Affairs Correspondent for

Axios.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's not the first difficult and tough call they had, although a senior U.S. official told me

yesterday it was definitely one of the worst calls they had, and that maybe there was one call over the war in Gaza that was more difficult than the

call yesterday.

And I think what was, I mean, what led to this is a growing feeling that the president had that Netanyahu is out of control. I heard it from several

of the president's people. And Trump, at the end of the day, wants to end the war with Iran and to deescalate in the region more broadly.

And he felt that what Netanyahu is doing in Lebanon and his plan to escalate the war further by expanding the Israeli ground operation in

Southern Lebanon and by going on a massive bombing campaign in the center of Beirut, knocking down buildings, and that is disproportionate and that

would cause an escalation that would undermine what the president was trying to do with getting a deal with Iran.

I think this is how the president went in to this call yesterday with Netanyahu yesterday around noon. And he told Netanyahu that he needs to

stand down and that he needs to understand that, you know, this war broadly in the region, has to come to an end, and that you cannot just continue it.

And over this call, Trump used the F-word several times, told Netanyahu is he's f-ing crazy, mentioned the fact that he helped him numerous times

regarding his pardon request in his corruption trial.

[09:10:00]

And therefore, what I heard from U.S. officials, and what I heard, and my colleague Marc Caputo worked with me on the story. What we heard is that

Trump message to Netanyahu was that by doing what he's doing in Lebanon, he's being ungrateful to all the assistance Trump gave him on the pardon

issue.

And I think this is also what you know, what led to the mention of, if not for me, you would have been in prison by now.

ANDERSON: Well CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now from the White House, and you will have read Barak's reporting, and heard that interview. President

Trump says agreement, then could be reached over the next week with Iran. We've been discussing that in the past 10 minutes with Jeremy Diamond in

Jerusalem.

What more are you hearing from the Trump Administration this hour?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, I think the president is clearly trying to project this idea that talks are moving

along at a good and progressive pace, you know, that idea that a potential framework deal, or as they refer to it here in the White House, a

memorandum of understanding, something like that, could be reached within a week, still a pretty optimistic assessment.

I think, putting a timetable on something like that at this point, after Becky, you and I have had many of these conversations over the last several

weeks. I mean, there's just so much uncertainty about when we could expect an agreement to actually be reached, but it's clear from what the president

really wants here.

His priority and his preference remain to handle this diplomatically. And that's in part because of the conversations he is having with allies in the

Middle East, you know, Gulf partners, other countries who have been very clear that they do not want major combat operations or full out war to

resume.

Now, of course, this ceasefire has been the most fragile it's ever been over the last several days, the most recent being really what you discussed

with Jeremy about Israel's moves into Lebanon and their threats to strike a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. That is something, and I know from my

conversations with people in the administration, Becky, that they do would really potentially upend these talks with the Iranians.

What is happening in Lebanon with Israel and their attacks on Hezbollah have been a core component of all of these negotiations. And so, when the

Prime Minister Netanyahu came out and said they were going to move forward with this, and then you saw that very strong response from Iran,

essentially threatening to halt negotiations overall.

Particularly at a time when we know that they are very close to narrowing in, on this memorandum of understanding, that sent President Trump into a

frenzy of anger. We were, I was told, he was very frustrated about this. Our colleague Kevin Liptak has some great reporting about the call that

Barak had also detailed.

I mean, he was incredibly angry and disappointed with how Netanyahu has been handling this. And I should note that that call, that tense call

yesterday between those two leaders, is not the first time we have heard of a very tense conversation between them. I'd remind you that a couple days

ago, perhaps a week or so ago now, I asked the president, President Donald Trump, directly, you know, do you believe that Netanyahu and Israel will be

ready to end this war when you are.

And he essentially told me that he believed Netanyahu will do what he tells him to do. Clearly, that is the message that Trump is trying to portray

today, that after he got off the phone with the Israeli Prime Minister, that Netanyahu kind of backed off from his strong plans to go and strike

Beirut, and now talks are back on track.

We'll see whether or not this continues to be an issue, because I think it's clear that Israel has said that they will strike if they feel like

they are being targeted by Hezbollah forces. And so again things are in a very fragile place. As for the framework deal itself, Becky, and what is

still needing to be worked out.

One, it's still in the hands of the Iranians. There, the Trump Administration is waiting to hear a response back from them. There are

still a number of things that the President, President Donald Trump, wants to change. You know, this idea of what's going to happen with highly

enriched uranium, the unfreezing of funds, all of that still kind of being massaged.

But they are very hopeful that they can at least get a tentative agreement soon to really begin the much harder negotiations, of course, on the

nuclear program, Becky.

ANDERSON: Got it. Good to have you, Alayna. Thank you. Well, at least 18 people have been killed, more than 100 wounded in what has been a large-

scale Russian attack on the cities of Kyiv and Dnipro. Ukraine's military says Russia fired over 650 drones and dozens of missiles, including

advanced hypersonics.

[09:15:00]

Ukraine's President had earlier warned that citizens of possible large- scale strikes after a threat from Russia last week. Now, these attacks sparked fires and damaged residential and commercial buildings. Officials

fear people are still trapped in the rubble of an apartment block in Kyiv.

Clare Sebastian has been following this. She's joining us from London. Clare, this was a large and widespread, I mean widespread attack. What are

we learning about it? Is it clear what Russia's targets were here?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, look, Becky, Russia has come out and said that this is part of a campaign to systematically target Ukrainian

industrial facilities, logistics, fuel facilities, all of course they claim supplying the Ukrainian army. They're also painting it as revenge, which is

something that we've heard many, many times over in this war, of course, a war that Russia started, which doesn't lend credibility to that claim, but

still they're claiming it's revenge for recent Ukrainian attacks.

In terms of what exactly they hit, well, some of that is still trickling in. We're hearing certainly from a major private energy company in the Kyiv

region that several of their facilities were targeted. This is a company called DTEK, two of their engineers were injured. President Zelenskyy also

spoke about energy and infrastructure facilities in Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region.

But some of the worst scenes that are coming out from this night and early into the morning as well come from residential buildings that were hit. A

building effectively leveled in Dnipro, according to President Zelenskyy, that's where we see the highest death toll, some 12 people killed there.

And in Kyiv as well several residential buildings were hit as well. Rescue operations still ongoing at two of those locations. So, look, I think

Russia is claiming, of course, that these are legitimate military targets, but overall, I think the pattern that we're seeing here is still one of

attrition, as they have somewhat lost the initiative on the battlefield here, this is an area where they can exploit vulnerabilities in Ukrainian

air defenses.

ANDERSON: Yeah, good to have you. Thank you. You are up to date on that story. Folks, when we come back, outrage in Kenya as the president there

pushes to host an Ebola quarantine facility for foreigners, we're going to get you a live report from the ground.

Plus, it's another election Tuesday in America. Six U.S. states holding what a critical primary that could reshape the political landscape ahead of

the midterm elections in November.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Kenya's President William Ruto defending plans to host what, what is a U.S.-backed Ebola quarantine facility in his country. Now, this

center, which was set up at the request of Donald Trump would House Americans who may have been exposed to the virus.

But Kenyans have been taken to the streets in protest as they fear being exposed to the deadly disease. Well, a court has temporarily suspended the

project following what is a legal challenge.

[09:20:00]

CNN's Larry Madowo is across the latest, and he joins us now, from Nairobi, Larry.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Becky, one of the questions that many Kenyans have is, why are there so many Americans in the Democratic Republic

of Congo that they need a quarantine center close enough to that country? Because this is a country that's been at war for some time, but it's also

very rich in minerals.

And this area in the northeast of DRC, where the epicenter of the outbreak is, is known for gold mining, and there's lots of Americans, Chinese,

Europeans who are prospecting for gold there, so that's some of the speculation here. But the big issue, why this has become a national,

there's so much backlash, is because people feel that this deal would import Ebola into the country.

Kenya, so far, has no Ebola cases, and they point to Uganda, which neighbors the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has closed its border

with the DRC, and they suggest that's the best way to deal with this. Health authorities do not think so. The World Health Organization, the

Africa CDC, they're all against closing borders, they think this is an international epidemic that should be handled in a better way.

But President Ruto says he personally approved this after I got a request from President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM RUTO, KENYAN PRESIDENT: I gave the OK, because it was an agreement and a partnership with friends who have worked with Kenya for 30, 40 years.

The American government has supported us. They have deployed huge resources in Kenya.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: President Ruto, there calling the Americans friends, but many here in the country don't feel that today there was a second day of protest,

this time here in Nairobi, in the capital, and some activists sent an Ebola casket outside the Health Ministry headquarters, and they chanted, Kenya is

not an American colony.

So, you see that how the government is out of step with the rest of the population who fear for Ebola. They feel that the health care system cannot

handle an epidemic like this, given the experience from COVID, and they would like to be kept safe, Becky.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Larry. Thank you. And we're going to have a lot more on this Ebola story next hour, including an important report

from my colleague, Clarissa Ward, who's on the ground in the DRC. Stay with us for that. Let's get you up to speed on some of the other stories that

are on our radar right now.

And rescue teams in Laos are searching for new ways into what is this flooded cave network, where two men are still trapped. The men entered the

cave nearly two weeks ago, but their exit was blocked by heavy rains. Five others have, of course, already escaped. Well, the Mayor of Newark, New

Jersey, holding a news conference this hour, as protests continue outside an immigration detention center there.

One of the protesters is charged with allegedly threatening to kill an I.C.E. officer and his family. Protests have led to clashes between

demonstrators, on the one hand, and officers, and a nightly curfew. Well polls just opened this hour in Montana and in New Mexico, two of six U.S.

states holding critical primaries today.

Voters are also casting their ballots in Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, and California, with several races that could shape the path heading into

the U.S. November midterm elections. Let's get the latest from CNN's Patrick Svitek. He joins us now live from Washington.

So, for our international viewers who are looking at these races and wondering what are the sort of key moments and key races that they should

be watching, what's your advice, sir?

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, I would tell them to look at California, where there is a big governor's race happening there today.

California, the biggest blue state in the United States. And so, it's very consequential who leads that state, especially in the final two years of

Donald Trump's time in the White House.

The big question in this California Governor's race is whether we're going to have two Democrats advance to the general election, or a Democrat and a

Republican. It would not be competitive in November if it were a Democrat and Republican, because California is such a heavily Democratic state.

But if two Democrats advance to the general election in California, you can continue to have a pretty contentious, dramatic, and costly race there, and

a big fight inside the Democratic Party about the best way to lead that state again in the second term of Donald Trump.

ANDERSON: Good to have you, sir. We will keep a keen eye on what is going on. It is an important day in the U.S. Coming up, of course, Wall Street

about to open any second, or in about five minutes of that. Also, just said artificial intelligence center stage as some AI companies plan for

blockbuster IPOs.

[09:25:00]

I want to speak to an expert who is taking a look at the value of these tech giants. More is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: And welcome back, I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines this hour. Iranian

media reports imply that indirect ceasefire talks with the U.S. are ongoing, that is, despite strong objections from Iran, Israel's threatened

military operations in Lebanon.

Israel's Defense Minister claims U.S. has backed defensive strikes against Hezbollah in Southern Beirut before President Donald Trump reportedly asked

that the plans be scaled back. Russia launched one of its deadliest offensives in months overnight, striking key Ukrainian cities.

At least 18 people killed across Kyiv and Dnipro, and more than 100 wounded. Russia says, sorry, Ukraine says Russia launched over 600 drones

and dozens of missiles, including advanced hypersonics. One number of suspected Ebola cases in the DRC has dropped, that is thanks to an

investigation by the W.H.O., which ruled out hundreds of them.

Now the total stands at 321 confirmed and 116 suspected cases. 48 people have died from the virus in the DRC. Six others have recovered. The primary

season heating up in America. Voters head to the polls in six states, including today, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and

California.

Excuse me. You can see those on the map, where we are closely watching two key races for governor and for Los Angeles Mayor. Well, joining the IPO

party, Anthropic says it has filed plans for an initial public offering, that would set up the AI giant for a share sale that could value the

company in the trillion-dollar range.

Anthropic is one of three highly anticipated AI IPOs expected this year, along with OpenAI, and with Elon Musk's SpaceX. My next guest, taking a

deep dive into the potential of artificial intelligence, looking at how these firms are valued versus actual usage in business today.

He says, quoting him now, implementation is where value gets made. Both labs are saying the same thing. Building the model isn't the hard part

anymore. Getting it to actually work inside Fortune 500's messy real-world systems is the new direction.

[09:30:00]

Russell Fradin is the CEO and co-Founder of Larridin which helps companies manage AI integration in the workplace. And he joins us now from San

Francisco. Good early morning to you, sir. Thanks for getting up for us. As we wait to hear the opening bell on Wall Street this morning any second

now.

I just want to get your take on Anthropic's announcement, and the other two that we are now expecting, Open AI and SpaceX. These IPOs, of course, will

give investors the first concrete window into these companies' financial data. We just heard the bell on Wall Street, of course.

This is the Tuesday trading day. And we'll keep an eye on these -- on the tech stocks, but these IPOs are what we are focusing on. Will this put AI

bubble fears to rest, do you believe?

RUSSELL FRADIN, CEO & CO-FOUNDER OF LARRIDIN: No, I think it's, you know, people like having something to talk about, and these growth of these

companies are extraordinary. The valuations seem high, so no, I think people will keep talking about it, but you know, fundamentally I imagine

the stocks will do quite well once they open.

There's a ridiculous amount of consumer interest, investor interest. So, I imagine over time the bubble fears will get quieter and quieter, but you

know, who knows, there's always something to talk about, and the stocks will go down at some point.

ANDERSON: Right. OK, the big story is these massive companies out there investing trillions in infrastructure at this point. Why? Well, they're

trying to get you, me, big companies, Fortune 500 companies invested in using AI. How will it change and revolutionize all of our lives?

Your company, Larridin, has compiled a State of Enterprise AI report. I thought it was really interesting. I just want to dive into a couple of

numbers that you highlight. More than 80 percent of companies told you that they are satisfied with their AI guard rails, meaning they got a plan.

FRADIN: Sure.

ANDERSON: But crucially, more than 45 percent of those organizations are unaware of the workforce adoption rate of AI tools and policies. What does

that number tell you, Russ?

FRADIN: We're very early in this transformation, so as you'd imagine, normally it takes a very long time for large companies to adopt new

technology, but what you've seen with AI is something I've never seen in my 30-year career in technology before. It's really proliferated every

organization everywhere, all around the globe, all at once.

And so, you see a lot of people just scrambling to catch up with all of the infrastructure. There's been investments on the security side to figure out

how do we secure our data and make sure it's safe, and what our employees doing is kosher. There's been investments on the training and learning and

development side, of course.

My company is building a measurement platform to help companies understand what's really happening with AI across their organization. And so, I look

at these as just the logical things that people need, but we're all building the infrastructure on the fly because these technologies have been

adopted so quickly.

ANDERSON: Let's talk about some of the success stories on the sort of AI journey, as it were. A new Microsoft report ranks countries in terms of AI

diffusion across the working age population. The UAE, where I am, Russ tops that list with seven -- diffusion rates Singapore second, France.

FRADIN: Very high --

ANDERSON: Yeah, France rounding out the top five. The U.S. 21st. What can you learn about uptake from this report? And how do you think a country's

widespread adoption of AI will influence its economic and geopolitical future, and the companies in that country, and governments, of course, but

the companies in that country, what will the impact be?

FRADIN: I think for the company's adoption it's a huge deal. What percent of the overall population uses AI in any given year? I'm not sure it

matters that much. It's very interesting data for Microsoft, and it's very encouraging for the UAE. My guess is data like that has a lot to do with

the demographics of a country, more than anything else, really.

You've seen these technologies adopted globally, truly everywhere, so my guess is, it has a lot to do with demographics, if you look at just

population level data, but at the company level, absolutely, you see a real divergence between multiple departments, between types of companies.

When we look across our Fortune 1000 customers, about 30 percent of the employees of these companies aren't using AI at all, even though tools have

been provisioned for them. And so, you're seeing a normal, like I said, diffusion of technology across the globe and across the workforce.

And really, what we're helping companies measure is how do we get our employees much more engaged in really using these things.

[09:35:00]

It's one thing to procure these tools, you have to make them a real part of your workflow to see any kind of productivity gain.

ANDERSON: What's the resistance?

FRADIN: I don't know if it's resistance so much as just needing to build more enablement. What we find when we talk to HR, learning and development,

think of the way a lot of things proliferate in companies normally, right. Normally, what happens is you have some early adopters that use some tools,

but otherwise HR, learning and development management, really helps their employees come along.

And now we're in this world where everyone's figuring this out on the fly. So, you certainly have some people who are, you know, a little more worried

about technology, they're worried they'll do something wrong. They don't want to get fired, right? Normal fears that you'd have.

I'm sure you have some normal kind of stick in the mud. I want to be a little slower. I don't want to learn something new. But what we generally

find is just as companies build more enablement and development, people get more comfortable. I'm sure they will see the same thing in the UAE with,

you know, this goal for having the entire economy identified and half of the services running, you know, agentic AI.

As you enable people to build these technologies themselves and use them safely, and they feel they're not worried they're going to get fired by

doing the wrong thing with the wrong data, and you have guardrails in place. I imagine you'll get to the point where 80, 90 percent of the

company will use AI.

ANDERSON: That's fascinating. You pointed out a key phrase from a recent OpenAI announcement, and you've described as capability overhang. That's

the basic idea that users simply have not maxed out the capability of these AI models. And this is how you put it the gap is implementation this is why

buying more tools does not solve the problem you are already underutilizing what you have.

So how do you suggest companies address that capability overhang, as it were?

FRADIN: Yes, by the way, I think that point from OpenAI is a very strong one. It is absolutely the case that if the model companies, if Anthropic

and OpenAI and others stopped developing new models, we'd still have years of productivity gains ahead of us, because every company is still figuring

out how to leverage these as much as possible across organizations.

As I said, you know, for our customers, we see 30 percent of the employees are barely using AI, not using AI at all, but for the customers that

approach 100 percent, they're obviously much more productive. So, once you get outside the cost issue, which is obviously something people are

wrestling with at the moment.

The biggest thing we have seen for our customers is the more they can implement specific agents in specific departments, the higher the adoption

goes. So, expecting your employees to just sit in a clawed window or a ChatGPT window is really the kind of basic entry-level use of AI.

And some employees know what to do, and they become super men and super women with those tools, but most really aren't sure what to do they, you

know, use ChatGPT to check, you know, when the World Cup games start, you know, something basic, really, you know, just a new version of Google

search.

The companies that are really driving change are using workflows across their organization to drive actual changes of behavior with, you know,

different agents at the department level. Those become much, much stickier for employees.

ANDERSON: Yeah, it's fascinating. It's good to have you, Russ. Thank you very much indeed. Some news you can use for sure there. Thank you. We've

got French Open action coming your way next, and all Ukrainian quarter final with an added piece of significance. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

ANDERSON: The first all Ukrainian Grand Slam quarter final in the open era, with even more history on the line for the winner, and it certainly

delivered. Amanda Davies with more, Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi Becky. Both Marta Kostyuk and Elina Svitolina had spoken ahead of this quarter final about how very aware they

were of the importance of what it meant, what they are doing for Ukraine now, 4.5 years on, of course, since that Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And then particularly given events in Ukraine last night, where we've been hearing at least 18 people had been killed in those strikes. Both of these

players, who have been so proudly flying the flag for Ukraine on the international sports circuit over the last few years, had been talking

about that it was a really fantastic encounter between the two of them.

It went all the way to the three sets, so not only historic, the fact that two Ukrainian women playing at this stage of a French Open for the first

time. But so, to the next step that there will be a Ukrainian woman in the semifinal of the French Open for the first time, it is Marta Kostyuk there,

her first ever Grand Slam semifinal.

Interestingly, she will be playing Russia's Mirra Andreeva, so no doubt that the narrative, the storylines that have been going on throughout this

tournament, will very much be set to continue. But it's been a fascinating French Open across the board, hasn't it? And so, we've got more on that to

come in just a couple of minutes in "World Sport".

ANDERSON: Right.

DAVIES: And also, of course, reacting to that big news of Serena Williams and her return.

ANDERSON: How about that? Good stuff. Stay tuned, everybody. "World Sport" up after this short break. I'm back in 15 minutes with more "Connect the

World".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

[10:00:00]

END