An honest conversation on AI — and the maturity of those who lead. Held in the company of leaders willing to sit with the question.
What happens when the speed of technological change exceeds the maturity of those guiding it?
How do city leaders remain present, embodied, and discerning inside increasingly automated systems?
Where should AI extend human capacity — and where must it never be allowed to substitute for it?
What becomes possible when AI is shaped in service of life, not extraction — and what kind of leadership does that require?
AI has not yet earned its name. It is not yet artificial intelligence.
Right now, it is still a reflection of collective human intelligence. It learns from us — from our patterns, our biases, our wisdom, our fragmentation, our creativity, our fear. Which means this is still a profoundly human moment. And therefore, a profoundly human choice.
Earlier this week, while visiting family in Romania, I saw an advertisement for an AI-enabled robotic system designed to feed a baby and change its nappies. Something in me was outraged. A child's deeper developmental needs are relational. Touch. Attunement. Eye contact. Safety. Tenderness. Without these things, we risk creating broken, wounded humans. And wounded humans build wounded societies.
Yet during that same visit, I encountered an elderly grandmother, isolated and frail, abandoned by the human relationships that should have held her. In that context, could an intelligent companion technology offer dignity, support, presence, even relief? Possibly. And that is precisely the point.
Because cities are where these questions become real. Who is really shaping your city? Its leaders? Its citizens? Its communities? Or invisible systems few truly understand?
CEO & co-founder, Global Mayors Academy & Living Cities Earth
Works at the intersection of regenerative city transformation, leadership development, and systemic change. Convenes this conversation from the body of work that gave rise to GMA itself.
Founder & CEO, EARTHwise · Architect of the EARTHwise AI Alignment Arena
Lead architect of the EARTHwise Constitution for a Planetary Civilisation and the Participatory Framework for an AGI Constitution. Brings decades of work on systems change, governance innovation, and human development.
Futures strategist · GMA Faculty (Global Positioning)
Internationally recognised for work on futures thinking, societal transitions, and the implications of emerging technologies for economies, labour, governance, and human capability development.
India Country Chair Ecocivilisation · UN Commons Cluster · Founder of BE WELL framework
Coordinator of Publications for the UN Commons Cluster NGO Major Group. Worked across 50+ Fortune 500 reengineering interventions, and founded BE WELL — a behaviour and wellbeing framework for vulnerable adolescents and their ecosystem.
If you carry responsibility for how a city decides, learns, cares, allocates, and adapts — this conversation was built with you in mind.
Distinctions you can carry into your next strategic decision — between augment and replace, between speed and wisdom.
A room of leaders holding the same question. Faces and names you may want to keep close long after the conversation ends.
An honest opening into the next inquiry. If the question stays with you, there are deeper places to take it next.
Thursday, 28 May 2026 · 5:00 PM UTC · 90 minutes · Online · Free. Places are limited, the recording is shared with all registrants.