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Pope Francis Speaks At G-7 On Artificial Intelligence; Final Day of G-7 Focuses On Countering China, Immigration After Earlier Focus On Ukraine Aid; Arrest Of Tajik Nationals Renews Concern Of Terror Attack On U.S.; "Violent Earth With Liev Schreiber" New Episode Airs Sunday At 9PM ET/PT. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired June 14, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:01]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are tracking President Joe Biden's busy final day at the G-7 summit in Italy. Here you can see the president greeting Pope Francis after the pontiff made a historic address.
Francis was the first pope ever to speak in front of the group of world leaders where he gave a dire warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence while also calling for a ban on automatic weapons.
Also on the pope's agenda, a private sit-down with President Biden.
CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, is in Italy there covering the G-7 and is with us now.
So, Nic, how significant was this visit and the speech by the pope?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Oh, it was really significant. If you think yesterday, it was President Zelenskyy and there was so much that was achieved for support for Ukraine, security packs, a $50 billion loan, additional sanctions on Russia.
The pope bought that today, the big focus on AI, a subject that could really have got lost at a big -- at a big format summit like this.
[13:35:07]
And the pope coming to talk about it and address the leaders and give them his ideas about it, saying that this was a tool and it's a tool that can be used for good or bad.
He gave an example of automated weapons where AI can work with a gun to select a target, pull the trigger, kill someone. He said, never should we be in a situation where a machine can just decide to kill a human.
He said what we need to do is develop this technology and the systems for the good of people. No community, no country should be left behind. The "haves" should not get advantage of this over the "have- nots."
And this was really reflected in the conversations that came after. White House officials telling us that what the United States was trying to achieve here on the back of the popes' comments was get some alignment among these G-7 leaders for AI governance.
It's a global issue. So you bring together these big, powerful economic democracies to try to set some guardrails, some guidance for how AI is going to be used.
And the other aim as well, really reflecting what the Pope, to make sure that the scientific benefits that come from it, the developments in health care, the developments in agriculture, all of those go to the developing world, the poorer parts of the world, as well as the better-off developed nations.
So this was the pope really bringing his star power, his charisma, his conviction, if you will, that this is a technology that can be used for good. But that leaders must get a grip on it. And that was really communicated today.
KEILAR: And, Nic, yesterday, the major focus for G-7 leaders was shoring up support for Ukraine. What other issues are they tackling?
ROBERTSON: So immigration was on the table today.
So was China, the Indo-Pacific, concerns about how to control or, if you will, limit and work together as a G-7 to try to curb China's trade practices, their employment of Uyghurs and taking advantage of Uyghurs in their manufacturing industries, these sorts of areas.
Recognizing that the Europeans and the United States still on slightly different footing when it comes to how they're trying to sort of deal with -- with China through trade relations and trying to get some alignment there.
But also the understanding as well -- I mean, we heard this from President Biden yesterday when President Zelenskyy was talking about he'd had a phone call with President Xi and President Xi said that it assured President Zelenskyy that Russia -- that China was not giving weapons to Russia.
President Biden chipped in then and he said, yes, China may not be supplying the weapons, but they're supplying -- supplying the technology to make those weapons.
So I think this was, again, an issue that we'll probably see reflected in the communique that will come out after the summit is finished.
KEILAR: All right, yes, we'll be looking for that.
Nic Robertson, live for us from Italy, thank you for the report.
And well be right back.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Terrorism fears are growing among national security officials after the recent arrest of eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS.
Sources tell CNN that immigration authorities made the arrests in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.
KEILAR: These men initially entered the U.S. at the southern border. They were vetted when they requested asylum.
We have CNN's Katie Bo Lillis, who is joining us now with details on this.
Katie Bo, what are you hearing from U.S. officials about this growing threat?
KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So, Brianna, really important to understand that, at this point, U.S. officials tell us that they have no evidence to suggest that any of these eight men were sent to this country by ISIS as part of a specific plot or to do a specific kind of violence, right?
But U.S. intelligence officials did pick up on some really concerning rhetoric, some extremist rhetoric from at least some of these people either on their social media or indirect communications.
And the concern for U.S. officials specifically was that these men could have been radicalized by ISIS-K once they were in the United States, feeling potentially isolated, homesick, financially vulnerable, right? Exactly the kinds of things that we know make people vulnerable to terrorist propaganda.
And so officials are very concerned in particular about ISIS-K, the group that these men are believed you have to have links to. Because the strategy that ISIS-K has been pursuing is rather than training and fielding operatives the way that al-Qaeda did with the 9/11 attacks, for example.
What they're doing is they're really emphasizing their propaganda networks and their online recruitment efforts in an effort to try to inspire so-called lone wolf attackers. And so that's exactly what U.S. officials were concerned about here.
They watched these men for a period of time. But once this information came to light about their rhetoric, they moved to go on and pick them up and arrest them.
Because, of course, in an environment in which -- in a global environment in which U.S. officials are warning that the possibility of a terrorist attack against the United States, particularly a lone wolf attack of somebody perhaps inspired by the violence in Gaza, for example, they're worried that that level is particularly high.
And so out of an abundance of caution wrapped these guys up. SANCHEZ: There's also something about the story that highlights the vulnerabilities at the southern border.
LILLIS: Yes. So these guys did come -- these men did come across the southern border.
[13:45:02]
And one thing that you'll hear from national security officials right now is that immigration at the southern border used to be a hemispheric issue, right? Like you were seeing people that were coming from Central and South America, by and large.
Now the number of countries that have nationals that are presenting at the southern border requesting asylum has gone up dramatically. And U.S. officials in particular had been paying attention to people coming from Tajikistan and other areas in Central Asia.
In fact, there was a group of migrants from Uzbekistan just last year who were later found -- once they had been in the country, were later found to have some potentially troubling ties to ISIS as well.
ISIS-K, this sort of splinter group of ISIS, that is the number-one concern for U.S. officials right now. Based in Afghanistan, it's actually made up primarily of Tajik nationals.
And the group has recruited really heavily out of Tajikistan. It's a really poor country. It's a country where the population lives under an enormous amount of religious repression, both things that we understand, again, are real factors for extremist recruiting.
And so U.S. officials, I think, particularly after that episode last year with the Uzbek nationals, had really been keeping an eye on Central Asian migrants that are arriving at the border.
SANCHEZ: Katie Bo, thanks so much for the report. Appreciate it.
We're continuing to follow breaking news out of Buckingham Palace. We have new details about the health of the princess of Wales and when she will make her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis.
Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.
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KEILAR: It's a natural disaster that only comes as a surprise, tsunamis. They can strike with little warning. They send waves in the ocean traveling at the speed of a jetliner, crashing into homes and businesses.
Twenty years after the deadliest tsunami in history, scientists are still trying to crack the code for better forecasts.
SANCHEZ: Meteorologist Elisa Raffa has the story -- Elisa? ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it was incredible learning about
how little we knew about tsunamis before the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. At the time, we really only had pictures from the 1960s to reference that were either black and white or poorly colored.
And even now, today, 20 years later, we're still learning a lot.
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DR. HERMANN FRITZ, TSUNAMI RESEARCHER, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: The notion tsunami as a singular event in the sense that it's changed everything.
RAFFA (voice-over): December 26, 2004, destructive waves caused by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake claim nearly a quarter million lives from southeast Asia to the horn of Africa, prompting a worldwide wake-up call.
FRITZ: They immediately made tsunami a household word. Everybody knows about tsunamis around the world now.
RAFFA: Water heights reached an astonishing 167 feet in Sumatra, one of the locations closest to the earthquake.
But devastation stretched from Asia to Africa with impacts felt in 17 countries.
Tsunami scientist, Hermann Fritz, deploys into the damage zone to learn from these disasters, hoping to put some sense into scientific simulations at his lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
FRITZ: You could also think of this experiment here like a tsunami on a treadmill. OK? So essentially, we have this roller here. It will be approaching the coastline and will essentially devastate the buildings, wash people away, drown people, and clear everything in its path.
RAFFA: The Indian Ocean tsunami was the first of its kind in the digital age. Tourists with camera phones were able to capture the first quality color images of these rare waves.
FRITZ: Basically gave tsunami an image, gave tsunami a video, gave tsunami a face.
RAFFA: It also gave tsunamis a more universal warning system. At the time, scientists, were only focused on shaking along the Pacific Ocean rim.
FRITZ: There are no warnings issued. And that is really the big failure. But the world was not prepared for tsunamis in 2004.
RAFFA (on camera): Can we predict for tsunamis?
FRITZ: Unfortunately, that is the billion-dollar question in geophysics is that we cannot predict the next earthquake. RAFFA (voice-over): Only once the ground starts to shake and waves move can scientists then plug the observations into super computers to calculate the size and speed of the possible tsunami.
A lot of science needs to happen really fast. Imagine not knowing where a hurricane will go until a couple of hours before landfall.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has significantly increased buoys to detect these deep-ocean waves. There were only four deployed into 2000. Now, there are more than 70 stations monitoring tsunami activity worldwide.
FRITZ: A lot of new buildings go up along the coastlines. There are more and more people in harm's way.
RAFFA: Simulating tsunami waves in a lab can help improve forecasts, better understand the impacts of damage, and create more resilient building codes.
But until we can pinpoint the next big earthquake --
FRITZ: If it shakes morning than 30 seconds, evacuate inland or to high ground.
RAFFA: -- public education and awareness is key.
FRITZ: Spontaneous evacuation. Even in the age of technology is -- it's the most efficient at saving lives.
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RAFFA: I really learned a lot from Dr. Fritz. And I even said to him, I thought we had it hard as meteorologists in trying to get data and do our forecasts. But at least we're surveying the atmosphere every single day and our models can get better because of that.
[13:55:01]
They need to wait for the earthquake to get the data. So it's really interesting to see where the science can go in the next 20 years. And he's excited about that, too -- Boris, Brianna?
KEILAR: So interesting. He's -- he's saying it pays to be careful.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
KEILAR: Elisa, thank you so much for that report. It was such a great one. Elisa Raffa, we appreciate it.
And we'll tune in to a new episode of "VIOLENT EARTH WITH LIEV SCHREIBER." That will air Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
And we'll be right back.
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