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Iran Widens Attacks As U.S. Conducts Sixt Night Of Strikes; Andy Burnham Becomes Head Of U.K. Labour Party; Trump Delivers Primetime Address On Election Integrity; China's Latest A.I. Breakthrough Rattles Tech Stocks; At Least Two People Dead, Hundreds Rescued In Texas Flooding; Are We Adapting To A.I. Fast Enough?; Inside Look At The Vatican Observatory. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired July 17, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of the show from our Middle East programing headquarters. I'm Becky Anderson in

Abu Dhabi, where the time is just after 6:00 in the evening.

Iran vowing to expand attacks across the Gulf after the U.S. strikes dozens of Iranian military targets. The U.S. also hit several Iranian bridges.

President Donald Trump promised big revelations about U.S. elections' integrity. Did his primetime address deliver anything new?

Also, catastrophic flooding hits the U.S. state of Texas. Hundreds of people there rescued.

We begin this hour with what are widening attacks in this region, the Gulf and Middle East. The U.S. stepping up its renewed bombing campaign on Iran,

going deeper inside the country, hitting bridges and an airport. We are hearing that from Iranian media. Tehran responding by targeting U.S. bases

across this region, they say. But it's not only bases in the firing line. Kuwait says an Iranian strike hit one of its water desalination plants.

That is especially worrying for people there and around the region. Kuwait, like many Arab countries, almost entirely dependent on desalination for

drinking water.

Eleni Giokos has the latest developments from her vantage point in Dubai.

What are these intensifying U.S. strikes on Iran's infrastructure and the sort of retaliatory response from Iran say about what is going on at

present?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And a lot of experts are saying that this has the hallmarks of potentially becoming a forever war. Some say that

this perhaps is the new normal. We are seeing an escalation ladder and no end in sight. There's no floor that is visible right now to get both sides

back to the negotiating table. Importantly, you mentioned some of the strikes that we've seen late Thursday and early Friday morning in and

around the region.

Iran targeting, Becky, seven countries in this region. And importantly, countries that have not targeted during this war, including Syria. We saw

targets on Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, where one child was injured because of shrapnel. I mean, the scale and the range of some of

these attacks particularly worrying. You mentioned that desalination plants and power plants in Kuwait, where there was damage.

And importantly, this is where a country like Kuwait and frankly for all of us here in the region get fresh water from. So these are sort of red flags.

But Iran, for its part, is showing that it still has military capabilities. It has released some of the footage of these drone launch sites. And in the

meantime, the United States retaliating six consecutive nights of targeting Iran.

We have geolocated some of the images of those bridges that lead up to Bandar Abbas, that important port city for Iran. The damage there, and also

Chabahar, another important port city for Iran, where we see a drone flying over smoke there as well. And Iranian state media saying that a maritime

tower was targeted.

The United States is trying to degrade Iran as much as possible to try and get it to the negotiating table. Iran has vowed retaliation. You know, when

this will end, can we get back to the memorandum of understanding? These are the questions that everyone in the region is asking. People in the

maritime industry are asking, as well.

As we've seen vessel traffic, Becky, dropping to a three-week low, just yesterday there were only eight vessels that transited the strait. Seven of

those used the northern route, the Iranian route. So a lot of questions here as we see escalation clearly being the game right now.

ANDERSON: Yes. Thank you, Eleni.

My next guest writing in "The Financial Times" says, quote, "Iran's current rulers believe that any display of restraint will only invite further

American pressure. To deter the U.S. they believe Iran has to be aggressive and escalate the conflict beyond what the U.S. is prepared to countenance."

Well, let's just do a deeper dive on the conceit of that narrative. Vali Nasr is a professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at

Johns Hopkins University. He is also the author of "Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History," well-versed in the thinking there. He joins us now

from Washington.

[10:05:08]

Vali, it's good to have you today, end of what has been, you know, a particularly worrying week.

VALI NASR, PROFESSOR AT, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Thank you.

ANDERSON: It's been 30 days since the signing of that MOU, which, you know, feels as if it was sort of dead on arrival to a degree. Iran widening its

targeting list to include Syria, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, while again hitting Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, including that desalination plant there. That's

after six days of consecutive American strikes.

Vali, your assessment of where we stand at this moment in time?

NASR: I think we are back to war. It's not at the scale that we saw in February through April. And the United States is not using very large

bombers, B-52s, B-1s, and it's not hitting the capital city, but it is devastating southern Iran. And it's not limited to destroying military

targets. It's hitting a lot of civilian targets as well.

The goal is to degrade Iran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz or assert control over it, and then basically persuade Iran to come back to

the table and negotiate with the United States in a way that would give the United States much more of an upper hand than it had when it signed the

MOU.

The Iranians, for their part, think that if they lose control of the strait and they go back to the table, then they have nothing to bargain with, and

they would have to sign on to whatever the United States dictates to them. So I think they're preparing to stay in the fight and to escalate against

the U.S., although I would say up to now, Iran has responded in a much more calibrated way.

But going forward, I think it might decide to escalate by attacking infrastructure across the Gulf as well as put a lot more pressure on energy

supplies, because Iran's leverage here is putting pressure on the global economy. U.S. is pressure is obviously the military superiority it has in

the air. And I think the two are going to go at it for some time.

ANDERSON: What do you make of the expanded targets? Syria, Iraq, and we've seen Oman involved, and Qatar. And we've seen the strike on the

desalination plant in Kuwait. But I'm really interested in the expansion beyond the Gulf at this point.

NASR: I think partly it's messaging that if the United States pursues its degradation of Iran, Iran is willing to expand this war across a vast area

than just the Persian Gulf region. In the case of Jordan, it is going after U.S. bases and radar systems that the United States uses in its bombing

campaign against Iran.

Syria is a very interesting case because in the case of Syria, it goes against the suggestion that President Trump has made that he may call on

the Syrian president to intervene in Lebanon and to fight and degrade Hezbollah. And I think Iran has warned Syria that if he does that, then he

will attack it much more directly. And perhaps these are warning shots to Ahmed al-Sharra to stay out of Lebanon.

ANDERSON: To pick up on your piece in the "FT," you write and I quote here, "Both countries believe time is on their side. Iran expects oil shocks and

market turmoil, as well as the political calendar to exhaust Washington's resolve. The U.S. expects financial attrition and military degradation to

exhaust Tehran."

Who blinks first at this point? Is it clear? Vali, can you hear me.

NASR: Yes, I can.

ANDERSON: Yes. Who blinks first at this point?

NASR: Well, that's the $64,000 question. Last time around, the United States blinked first. That's what Iran took away from the first round. This

time, I think the Iranians, again, are calculating that ultimately the president will try to break their back. But once the pressure mounts on the

global economy, that he will have to go back to the table and again negotiate in earnest for another MOU.

[10:10:05]

I think, you know, we have to remember, for the United States, this is not everything, but for Iran, this is an existential fight. And so they are

willing to suffer more and accept more hardship because the alternative is basically complete collapse. If they give in now, then basically they may

as well surrender. And I don't think they're ready to surrender. And if they're not ready to surrender, they have no choice but fighting. That's

the way they are thinking about this.

ANDERSON: It's becoming increasingly difficult to understand where this all goes. One senior official in this region told me last week before this past

six days of U.S. consecutive strikes and the retaliation that we've seen, if you want to call it that, they said to me simply, you know, when I

asked, where is this headed, I was told, its going nowhere good.

Can you try and help us understand what the Gulf and Arab perspective is here from those? And you're very well sourced. You've got very good

contacts in this region. You know, what happens next as far as this region is concerned?

NASR: I mean, for the Gulf region, I think the dilemma is that they're caught in a fight between Iran and the United States and are unable to

influence either party here in a decisive way, nor can they themselves have an impact on the course of the fighting or defend against it. The fighting

is happening on top of them. They are obviously very angry at Iran for targeting them, but at the same time, they cannot rely on the United States

to either defend them, nor they can influence what President Trump will decide to do.

I think the worst case scenario for them is that this war would escalate and inflict far more damage on them, and would have an impact on the region

for the longer period or that the war will continue for an indefinite time period. Maybe this kind of level of fighting on and off will continue until

November and even beyond. And the idea of a forever war, which is a continuous shadow of risk and insecurity over the Gulf, even if it doesn't

mean a massive attack on Gulf infrastructure, energy, civilian still greatly damages the economies of the Gulf, which rely on security,

stability, and peace.

And so for the first time, the Gulf has ended up being in the middle of a war zone. Except it's not its war. It's Iran and the United States war. The

U.S. started this war. Iran is engaging. Neither side is backing off. And the Gulf has tried very hard to bring about peace. But it hasn't been able

to do so. So I think the goal of the Gulf in the short term is peace and security and then dealing with how they deal with the Iranian threat and

deal with filling in for what they see is the shortcomings of U.S. security umbrella.

But I think they have very few levers to play on. And it's a very difficult situation for the Gulf countries.

ANDERSON: Vali, it's good to have you. Apologies, we seem to have a slight technical issue as we started this but we got you back and your insight and

analysis as ever hugely important to us. Thank you very much indeed for joining us at the end, as I say, of what has been a worrying week in

region. Thank you.

Well, the U.K. is set to have a new leader, former mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, earlier today he became the new head of the Labour Party,

replacing Sir Keir Starmer, who announced he would be stepping down as prime minister back in June. Burnham, not officially the new PM yet, but

will take over the role on Monday.

Let's get you to CNN's Nada Bashir, who is in London.

So because he's the leader of the Labour Party and the Labour Party is the ruling party in government, he automatically becomes the prime minister. He

talks about wanting to put an end to the sort of politics and politicking. He wants to focus on policy, which I'm sure is music to the ears of the

entire British populace. Except its very unclear what his plan is at this point, and who he is likely to pick to help him implement that change?

Is that getting any clearer at this point?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we did hear from Andy Burnham giving a very clear statement in which he did outline five key areas where he

plans to dedicate his focus as the new leader of the United Kingdom once he is finally in place at 10 Downing Street. On Monday, he talked about trying

to unify the Labour Party. This is a country which has seen, of course, a huge amount of division within 10, within individual parties, but also, of

course, across the political spectrum as well.

[10:15:06]

He also spoke about trying to be very clear about the party's direction. And while Andy Burnham didn't really offer any clear outline as to what

this Labour Party under his leadership would look like, he has been quite clear that he believes this is the strategy needed to ensure a win at the

next general election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY BURNHAM, LABOUR PARTY LEADER: As your leader, I will set a direction that is distinctively Labour. From here, we do it differently. We win by

being us. Boldly, confidently, authentically us. Labour. That's how we win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, Andy Burnham also focused on two very clear points that he would like to focus on throughout his leadership. Part of that was trying

to be a prime minister for the whole of the U.K.. He has, of course, built a reputation in the north as the former mayor of Greater Manchester, but he

said he would be a prime minister for all parts of the United Kingdom, for all peoples of all walks of life.

But he also said he wanted to see power decentralized from Westminster, from Whitehall, giving power and authority back to local politicians to

local mayors to try to focus on those grassroots issues that, of course, so many in the United Kingdom are concerned with. But there are still real

questions as to what his broader domestic policies will look like. Of course, real questions as to what his foreign policy will look like as

well.

And that will really hinge on who he decides to appoint within his Cabinet. Again, all eyes will be waiting on Monday to see who those key appointments

will be.

ANDERSON: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely critical. And we will report on that as we get it.

Good to have you, Nada. Thank you.

Still to come, U.S. President Donald Trump claims America's election system is vulnerable. Those claims made during a primetime speech Thursday. We're

going to break down his allegations coming up. Plus, extreme rainfall in Texas has caused massive destruction, prompting flash flood emergencies and

evacuations. More on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: President Trump used a primetime address on Thursday to allege vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system, including, he said, hacking,

exploitation and foreign interference. He also claimed China, in particular, has attempted to influence U.S. elections in the past. It's an

allegation that Beijing denies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They show that over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People's Republic of

China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million

U.S. voter files.

[10:20:07]

That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to

vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And the release of these documents were not meant to weaken confidence, his words, in U.S. elections, though critics, of course, have

said he did just that.

For more on this, let's bring in Pete Seat. He's a former White House spokesperson for President George W. Bush, a Republican, of course.

Before we begin, Pete, our U.S. national security reporter, Zach Cohen, went through all of the documents that Trump is hinging his election

interference claims on. And he gave this fact check, quote, "The documents largely discussed vulnerabilities that have been known for years and-or are

reflected in the 2021 U.S. intel community assessment. None of the declassified information supports the claim any previous election results,

including the 2020 presidential contest that Trump lost, were manipulated by foreign interference or fraud in a way that would have changed the

outcome."

So that's Zack's assessment. So with that, and given that we're, what, three and a half months out from what is a crucial midterm period, it's the

midterm elections, of course, beginning of November, can we talk about the timing here? Why give this speech now do you believe?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON FOR PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, first off on what Zack said is at no time last evening did the president

connect these allegations to any vote changes or different election outcomes in 2020. He never did that. Now, a lot of Democrats and some in

the media claimed, they predicted that that's all the speech was going to be about. But it actually never came up. So their predictions were

inaccurate.

As far as the timing goes, I think it's fair game to talk about election integrity at any time. Now, whether this rose to the level of a primetime

presidential speech, I'm not convinced of that, mostly because the president didn't make that pivot to, hey, here's what has happened with

foreign interference and meddling in our elections. Here's what it means for us today and what it could mean in the future.

ANDERSON: Right.

SEAT: And most importantly, here's what my administration is going to do about it. We may find out from Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne

Mullin a little later today what they plan to do that may answer some of those questions, but the president could have done it with his primetime

speech as well.

ANDERSON: Yes. And it's surprising that he didn't, I think, given what we know about Donald Trump. I just wonder, and it's interesting that you say

we may get more on this as it's fleshed out by his team, but I wonder then what you think his intention was in addressing the American public with

this.

SEAT: Well, he has been focused on the issue of election integrity for a decade now, if not longer. And one, that's because it's a personal project

of his, but also because a lot of Republicans, Democrats, too, but mainly Republicans are focused on this. We read the news, we watch the news, we

hear about election fraud. It is not nonexistent nor is it as inconsequential as Democrats would want you to believe.

Here in my home state of Indiana, a Democrat county chairman went to jail for submitting fraudulent ballot access signatures that got Barack Obama on

our ballot in 2008. Barack Obama should have never been on the Indiana ballot. There was a Democrat in southern Indiana who was who was charged

and went to jail for absentee ballot fraud. These things happen, and Republicans have been focused on these issues.

And so we need the safeguards. We need to secure our elections from coast to coast. And I don't think it's a controversial thing for the

administration to want to more closely partner with states and local governments to help them with those safeguards.

ANDERSON: You make a very good point. But when the president claims and continues to claim that the election was stolen in 2020, it does raise

issues for people in the U.S. and around the world, whether or not they are Democrats. But thank you. I mean, your point is well made.

I want you to listen to prominent Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on this. Stand by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): So he's desperate. He's very unpopular.

[10:25:01]

He wants to cheat. His avenues are being narrowed. And so this just may be a guy who needs to yell and scream on TV for an hour, but it may land with

a giant thud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And look, whether or not you agree with Chris Murphy, from the perspective here, for example, in the Gulf, and I'm in the UAE, our Middle

East broadcasting headquarters, as the conflict with Iran heats up, and there is a sense that the pressure is building on Donald Trump and that

there is a sort of, perhaps a sort of distraction tactic here.

Is there any merit to Senator Murphy's claim?

SEAT: As painful as it is for me to say yes, I would not have phrased it the way he did. But I think the president is frustrated that the Congress

will not pass, cannot pass the SAVE America Act that would strengthen our elections by instituting voter I.D. at the polls across this country. I

think he's also frustrated that he doesn't feel he gets enough positive coverage about some of the accomplishments of the administration.

He spent the first six minutes of that 26-minute speech last night focused on those accomplishments and rehashing and reminding Americans about what

they have done here in his second term. He spent then the 20 minutes after that on election integrity.

I would have flipped it. I would have spent more time on the accomplishments and reminding everyone what has taken place and then done

the election piece because Americans are focused on the economy, Americans are focused on prices, and Americans are focused on the conflict in Iran,

not necessarily on the election yet.

ANDERSON: Yes, fascinating. It's good to have you, sir. Thank you very much indeed for joining us today.

SEAT: Thank you.

ANDERSON: You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson.

We are keeping a keen eye on big tech today. Shares in the seven magnificent or the magnificent seven as they're known lower today dragging

the indices lower. That is after a Chinese A.I. company said it has closed the gap with models like ChatGPT and Claude at least one of the reasons

why. I mean, you've got the Dow Industrials just in positive territory. But the other two markets lower. They are actually coming back somewhat from

where they were in the first hour of trade. A live look then at those indices for you.

CNN Business senior reporter David Goldman joining us from New York with more on the situation.

So, you know, it would be unfair today to say that these indices are sort of falling out of bed because they're beginning to look sort of mixed

really, David. This Chinese company's announcement, though, does seem to have rattled investors in big tech. How significant is their new claim?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, it reminds me of DeepSeek, which we had just over a year ago, which made A.I. cheap for

everyone. And that was the big concern, is that China might have surpassed us. Well, it turned out that the U.S. continues to be the A.I. leader, but

no one expected that to continue without a challenge from China. And here we are again with the Chinese model that is threatening Anthropic and

OpenAI, ChatGPT, you know, Gemini, all of these American models.

And that's really pressuring the entire industry. And a lot of nerves have been building up among Wall Street investors because these valuations have

been sky high. And now we're starting to see, well, OK, we know that there's demand for this stuff. And we know that, you know, there's a real

product here, but it costs a lot of money to build out. And how much longer is this going to last? And I think that that's what a lot of this is about.

When you have valuations that are that high, when you keep building the Jenga tower higher and higher and higher, you know, one little bump can

upset the whole thing. And, you know, this is what this classic Wall Street, right? You just panic and, you know, have a bad day. But then I

think it's important to put all of this into perspective. The entire stock market is less than 2 percent below its record high.

Things are pretty good in the economy and the prices, although they're lower today, I think still reflect a pretty good story, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes. I mean, it would be no -- it wouldn't be wrong to suggest some profit taking possibly here. So I think you make a very good point.

Obviously we've got the geopolitical sort of uncertainty. It's been a very messy week in the region where I am with the U.S. and Iran trading strikes

and blows, of course.

[10:30:09]

So I think worth holding our breath on this and seeing what happens Monday morning again.

Good to have you, sir. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, when we come back, can science and religion work together? The age old question. This Vatican run observatory in Italy, though, proves that

they can. We bring you an inside look after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Welcome back. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. Here are your headlines this hour.

The U.S. military has carried out its sixth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, as the conflict shows no sign of easing. Iran has stepped up

its attacks in the Gulf. Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, all coming under Iranian fire and Tehran now threatening key ports in Gulf states.

President Donald Trump used a primetime address Thursday to focus on what he called the need for, quote, "free and fair elections" in the United

States. He announced the declassification of documents he says reveal vulnerabilities in the U.S. electoral system, including hacking,

exploitation and foreign interference.

And the U.K. is set to have a new leader on Monday. In the last few hours, former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, took over as leader of

the Labour Party, replacing Keir Starmer, which officially makes him prime minister on Monday.

Well, at least two people have been killed by catastrophic flooding raging through parts of the U.S. state of Texas. The governor there, Greg Abbott,

says more than 230 rescues have been made so far, while the threat of heavy rainfall has mostly shifted from the hard hit areas. Other parts of Texas

are under a new flash flooding emergency. Well, the disaster echoing similar devastation from last July, where flooding left more than 130

people dead, including 25 girls, at a summer camp.

We got CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joining us live from Atlanta.

You've been looking at that devastation wrought by this weather. What's the forecast, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So you talked about it correctly there, Becky. The hardest hit areas of Texas were from this part of the state. OK.

So Texas is huge, right? Everything is bigger in Texas. But I'm trying to point this out to you to show you that now the axis of heaviest of rain is

to the north and west, and that's where we have the current flash flood emergencies.

[10:35:05]

But this ground here is not as compromised as this ground here. This is the area that saw a year's worth of rainfall from the sky. This is kind of a

new situation that's unfolding, but we do anticipate this to not be as impactful as what we experienced just to the south.

Something I want to note in real time here, though. We talk about this fire hose of water. The radar points this out perfectly. Watch this band right

here going through Sonora, where the flash flood emergency is, and then just to the west of that. Notice how it kind of waves back and forth.

That's the fire hose effects we're talking about. That's the heavy rainfall that trains over the same locations for periods of time, causing the rapid

rises in the rivers and unfortunately, the flash flooding.

So these are the two flash flood emergencies that we have. This is Interstate 10. This is a very well-traveled route of West Central Texas.

And notice that threat of catastrophic flash flooding. That's the highest alert level that the National Weather Service issues with flood events. But

that's up there. This is where the heaviest rain has fallen. So I'm trying to get this point across that this is kind of a newly formed area of heavy

rainfall.

But that axis of heaviest rain took place yesterday and since the beginning of the week, just to the south. So the rivers here, the Guadalupe River,

we've been talking so much about still elevated, but they have come down considerably. Remember, they run towards the Gulf of America right there

with flash flood watches in place. There's still several river gauges that have major flood stage forecasts that can be expected, maybe increasing

those, especially in those harder hit areas right now.

But we don't have that level four of four from the Weather Prediction Center, the highest risk level of that flash flood threat because the axis

of the heavy rain is shifting away from West Central Texas, kind of focusing its attention now on Arizona, New Mexico, into portions of Utah

and Colorado. They need rain over there so they can take it. But boy, what's happened across the state here has been very impactful.

You could just see going forward where the axis of the heaviest rain is away from the hardest hit areas of West Texas, Becky.

ANDERSON: Always good to have you, Derek. Thank you very much indeed.

And you are watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. We are back after this quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, there is no doubt that A.I. is impacting our lives. Not least changing how young people learn, what they learn and why. Big

questions about what the job market looks like going forward and what skills our youngsters will need to compete.

Well, on the latest episode of "Intelligent Future," our series about how A.I. and advanced tech is transforming our lives, I spoke to the president

of the Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence here in Abu Dhabi about how we adapt and what we should expect.

[10:40:09]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Where do you stand on the earlier introduction of A.I. in education?

ERIC XING, PRESIDENT AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, MOHAMMED BIN ZAYED UNIVERSITY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: I see A.I. as reality like air and

water in the world. It is existence. You have to deal with the arrival of A.I. technology and any technology.

ANDERSON: So you've had about 500, 600 students through as I understand it.

XING: Yes.

ANDERSON: What do they get out of the courses they study with you?

XING: When they become experts in this technology, they can understand the mechanisms, the theory, and also the methodology of creating A.I. function

and also they can think about, you know, how to solve new problems in their hands with hopefully a A.I. driven or A.I. related technology.

ANDERSON: Eric, you have the most enormous brain, so forgive me, I'm going to be really quite basic about this. We're all on our own sort of A.I.

journey. Mine is sort of developing through understanding, you know, the use case for, for example, chatbots, ChatGPTs of this world, the kind of

deeper, wider sort of search facility through to, you know, a relatively good understanding now about the sort of world of agentic A.I..

Talk to me about what you see out there as the most exciting use cases at present.

XING: Mainly about a few things. Text generation. Generating contents or a fancy answer to whatever interesting queries and prompts. The other

dimension is on generating visual contents. And then of course within them, you know, there's a small dimension about generating solutions to very

fancy and maybe even mystical problems, like big mathematical puzzles and so forth. But that's only a very small part of the A.I..

What I just talk about is what I call the book intelligence because all this information and all this level of intelligence are created through

training a model by feeding them books, or maybe images, but it's a very, very prescribed amount of information in digital form. Book intelligence

can only get you as far as a book can get. Therefore, you have to have an advanced level of intelligence.

So here are the next few level of intelligences. I'm talking about physical intelligence, meaning that you should be able to understand the physics of

the world. What makes up the world interesting is more than just a few books. Then after the physical intelligence, we need to also have something

called a social intelligence, or maybe a genetic intelligence, meaning that you need to understand who you are yourself, your capability, your

boundary, and also others' boundary and capability.

Be able to communicate that and then divide a complex work among all these players so that you can collaborate and also solve bigger problems.

ANDERSON: So you've just been talking about, you know, what people need to be able to do going forward, which makes me think about how we're educating

our kids at this point and where they are headed. Let's start with the UAE, which is introducing A.I. education from kindergarten right the way

through. And supporters say that kids need to understand, one, you know, how to use sort of A.I. advanced tech. Well, critics worry that they may be

exposed to all of this sort of, you know, artificial intelligence before developing those critical thinking skills.

Let's start there. Where do you stand on the early introduction of A.I. in education?

XING: Well, there is a bigger issue. If I have an important tool, you know, such as A.I., which can do a lot of things for you, is that a reason for

you to give up your agency and delegate all your critical thinking and solution to A.I.? Well, you have that option, but you don't have to do it.

I think education is about teaching the kids or anyone what to do, what not to do, and then how to do it.

ANDERSON: So I've got a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old, and they're being educated here in Abu Dhabi. And I, you know, I worry about the impact.

Should I?

XING: You should but on the other hand not to be overly concerned.

[10:45:01]

I think, you know, it's better for the kids or for everyone to be exposed to that to develop immunity and also natural kind of understanding and

eventually a skill, a capability of coexistence. That's my attitude.

ANDERSON: Students at institutions, including Columbia and the University of South Carolina, have protested the growing role of A.I. in education,

arguing that it risks weakening critical thinking and creativity. You've got young people going through college, trying to enter the job market or

looking to enter the job market, and realizing that A.I. is, of course, taking up a lot of entry level work.

So what do you make of those specific concerns? You must be having these conversations.

XING: I don't think, you know, I want to teach my students to the point that they have an expectation that they can use what they learned directly

to get a job. That is exactly making use of what they were taught. That very expectation itself is very, very unproductive and also unnecessary. I

think learning itself is for the sake of learning to become a learned person.

ANDERSON: What's the vision for the university?

XING: So we're already beyond A.I. university. In the next three to four years, three more divisions will be added. One is the physical and the

natural science division, where you will find chemistry, physics and other natural sciences, and then another division called humanity, social and

management sciences. And then the last one, engineering sciences. By year 2030, we will be, you know, a mid-sized comprehensive university, primarily

focusing on graduate level advanced research, but also an elite but a small undergraduate program.

So this is really go hand in hand with the UAE's vision to become a knowledge driven economy where knowledge is not just about A.I., it's about

using A.I. as an enabler to do other things, science, engineering, medicine better and more efficient.

ANDERSON: Recently, Anthropic's co-founder Jack Clark said the following. "When I looked down at the car we're driving, all I have is a gas pedal. I

don't have a brake." If some people, some of the people building the world's most advanced A.I. systems are already talking about the need for a

brake, do you think we need to hit the brake?

XING: Every tool has a brake and a light bulb. You know, a car, you know, or even a rocket. I think in A.I. is a built in from day one, but it can be

done in different ways. It's really about whether you have the will to control it and also how to do it efficiently and economically. And this is

where, you know, the engineering of A.I. implementations and architecture have been studied.

I don't think, you know, it is ignored by the scientists. The public anxiety is really coming out of the economical and sociological impact, you

know, of A.I. as it is, you know, being misused and abused. So the problem is on people, not on A.I..

ANDERSON: So it's not an economic issue per se. It's a policy issue. It's a politics issue, right?

XING: Policy issue. It's also an economic issue, for example, A.I. will take over some jobs.

ANDERSON: Right.

XING: Any invention will take --

ANDERSON: But again that's a policy issue, isn't it?

XING: It's a policy, and therefore the solution is not about stopping A.I. or, you know, put it in the cage, you know, or call it, you know, a pause.

Wait until we are ready. It's really about how people can proactively deal with it.

ANDERSON: They will, but who will? I mean, are technology companies prepared for the level of responsibility that comes with building these

systems, do you think?

XING: No, I think they'll -- I mean, the society as a whole.

ANDERSON: Right.

XING: Not technology companies.

ANDERSON: If you had to name the three things that the world needs most to build a more intelligent future, what would those three things be?

XING: First of all, the right people, the smart people who know how to come up with necessary and the powerful new architecture and the theory, and

also implementation, you know, of the system itself. And then you need to have the data that is able to provide the knowledge and the information in

large quantity. And in, I want to say steerable way, you need to basically, you know, close the loop of getting data, creating demands and getting more

data and so forth. But data is the second dimension.

[10:50:03]

The third one is the infrastructure compute. So these three things, you cannot miss any of them. I want to actually say that UAE is one of these

very, very few places within a single city, within one university, which seems to have all three of that.

ANDERSON: Thank you for being here, and thank you for joining us on "Intelligent Future."

XING: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to talk to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: SpaceX scrubbed its planned test flight of the company's Starship on Thursday. The launch was halted as the rocket's engines ignited. The

company says it's not clear how soon they can recycle that rocket for another attempt.

From the moment the Catholic Church strongly denied Galileo's theory that the Earth revolves around the sun, it seems religion and science have been

at odds. But a Vatican run research center in Italy shows that the two are working together to help uncover some of the mysteries of the universe.

Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb gets an inside look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A view of the heavens. The Vatican run observatory studying the skies. Located at the

papal retreat of Castel Gandolfo, a secluded setting in the Vatican gardens, overlooking Lake Albano and a place where two schools of thought

meet.

FR. RICHARD D'SOUZA, DIRECTOR, VATICAN OBSERVATORY: This is the first telescope that the observatory bought in 1891, and the reason this

telescope is so important is that this telescope was used to have the first international project in the sciences.

LAMB: The church and science are sometimes seen in opposition to each other, but here at the Vatican Observatory, a team of astronomers supported

by the Pope is engaged in significant research. The papacy has supported the study of the heavens for centuries, and that work continues today at

the observatory at Castel Gandolfo, just outside of Rome. The work that is undertaken here includes everything from the analysis of meteorites to

changes in the Earth's temperature and climate change, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

(Voice-over): The case of Galileo, condemned by the church after showing the Earth revolves around the sun, often cited as a moment when religion

got it wrong on science.

D'SOUZA: It is an unfortunate mistake on the part of the church at that time, and the church has since then always taught the Copernican models and

the 17th century onwards, but took a bold step in apologizing under John Paul II.

LAMB: And this observatory in the center you lead is about science.

D'SOUZA: Yes. What we do here is primarily scientific research. This observatory was founded in 1891 or re-founded in 1891 by Pope Leo the 13th

and his mandate to us that we should do good astronomical science.

LAMB (voice-over): Pope Leo, who studied mathematics at university and has written an encyclical and artificial intelligence, is supporting the

observatory, which will continue to study the galaxies wherever the evidence takes them.

[10:55:06]

D'SOUZA: The question of extraterrestrial life is one of the fundamental questions of astronomy. In fact, there are three fundamental questions.

Where do we come from? Where are we going? And are we alone? And so astronomy is devoting the last few decades a lot of money to understand

whether there are other Earth-like planets out there which could support life. The more I study the universe, the more I give praise to God, the

creator who created this.

LAMB (voice-over): Christopher Lamb, CNN, Castel Gandolfo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Right. You've been watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson, from the team working with me here in Abu Dhabi. It is a very

good evening.

That's it from us. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END