AWS joins global leaders in New York during United Nations General Assembly

Dave Levy, left, speaks during his fireside chat at the Concordia Summit, “The AI Revolution: Harnessing Digital Innovation in the Public Sector.”

While global leaders convened for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, I met with business leaders, diplomats, and civic organizations to discuss AWS’s innovative approach to tackling global challenges.

I delivered a fireside chat at the Concordia Annual Summit, and joined the Atlantic Council for two panels, where I shared AWS’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services are key examples of how we harness technological advancement to drive global impact.

At my Concordia Fireside Chat with CEO and Co-Founder Matthew Swift, we discussed how AWS’s partnership with the U.S. and overseas governments can improve lives through public sector citizen services and increased transparency: two things that are critical to building and maintaining trust in institutions.

During my panel discussion with the Atlantic Council’s Global Future Forum, we heard powerful feedback from world leaders about the real-time success of AWS’s public sector partnerships. Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Ambassador Paula Dobriansky highlighted AWS’s groundbreaking partnership with the Australian government to provide a Top Secret Cloud.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Ambassador to the U.S. shared that, “with AWS and what we’ve done recently with Top Secret Cloud, we have no qualms whatsoever about the level of public-private partnership that we engage with security cleared and security trusted partners here in the United States.”

At the Atlantic Council Transatlantic Forum on GeoEconomics panel, experts underscored the importance of democratizing AI technology. Carole House, Special Advisor for Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Technology policy at the White House National Security Council (NSC), said, “The decentralization and distribution of knowledge and skillsets as well as democratized access to highly sophisticated technologies is the common beating heart in the story of evolution.”

This week, AWS moved further to closing the AI-access gap. On Monday, the U.S. Department of State announced AWS and seven other companies launched the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI. We are proud to make a $10 million donation in credits to help expand access to AI technology around the world. Additionally, AWS has committed to provide no-cost AI-specific skills training to two million more people globally by 2025.

These events served as a reminder of the valuable role AWS has in creating meaningful solutions to complex world problems, but we can’t – and don’t – do it alone. Our public sector partnerships are more important than ever in transforming technology into a force for good.