GESDA expands interest in science diplomacy as a tool for global cooperation with 1,250 participants at third summit

One year since shifting from a startup to an active launching pad for global solutions, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation emphasized the growing need for anticipatory debates - like those at its third annual summit - that can help shape global governance and improve people's lives.

Case in point: the sudden rise of new generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT. OpenAI, which owns and hosts ChatGPT, quickly became one of the world's most visited websites, though the craze has since subsided a bit in recent months.

"Exactly a year ago, we were not talking about ChatGPT," GESDA's Board Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said, noting that the fast pace at which these new generative AI tools were adopted has left many of the profound questions about their use to be debated - and answered - after the fact.

"I think this is a wonderful example of what we want to try to avoid with scientific breakthroughs in the future," he said in his opening address. "It is too late to talk about it and it is too late to frame when the breakthrough already has taken place. I think the world deserves and needs better than that."

The third annual Geneva Science and Diplomacy Summit organized by the GESDA Foundation opened on Wednesday at the newly inaugurated CERN Science Gateway in Geneva, where some 870 in-person and 380 online participants came together for three days of discussions to address some of the dozens of emerging topics and hundreds of breakthroughs that GESDA has identified as top priorities.

Inside a brand new auditorium, down the hall from exhibits about scientific explorations of the universe, Brabeck-Letmathe kicked off the opening plenary with an announcement that the London-based Wellcome Trust will support GESDA and its partners with 8 million Swiss francs for one of GESDA's most advanced initiatives, the creation of a Global Curriculum for Science and Diplomacy. Under the initiative, a global framework will be developed to train professionals in science and diplomacy based on a set of commonly recognized skills and knowledge.

He also welcomed three new Board members: Enrico Letta, the former Italian Prime Minister and President of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris; Cheryl Moore, Wellcome’s Chief Research Programmes Officer; and Henrietta Fore, an American-Swiss diplomat who served as Director of UNICEF between 2018 and 2022 as well as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

The addition of these new Board members and the momentum of the past year give GESDA a growing sense of confidence, Brabeck-Letmathe said, which translates into its goal of giving society the time it needs to prepare for technological and scientific advances "with the best possible transitions, and the best possible concrete projects," rather than holding rushed, belated debates.

"Our definite goal is to widen the circle of people who benefit from scientific and technological advances as it is stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he said, citing Article 27 which insists everyone is entitled to participate in a community's cultural life and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

The first day was filled with panel discussions, debates and presentations about efforts around the world to anticipate the future of peace and war; extend regular life spans beyond a century old; monitor Earth's vital signs in the fight against climate change; compute with living matter; invest more heavily in emerging science; study the physics of groups; and advance thought-controlled walking.

Geneva: 'the laboratory of 21st century global governance'

The stakes are high for people around the world, and political leaders also will be asked to give a reality check on some issues and proposed solutions. This political segment, which is being organized on Thursday and Friday jointly by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the GESDA Foundation, is expected to bring together ministers and delegates from 10 countries. Swiss Foreign Minister and Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis will host the discussions .

"We are here in the laboratory of 21st century global governance. And the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Summit is the moment where we get a condensed verion of all that," said Alexandre Fasel, who in June became the State Secretary of FDFA and also serves as Switzerland's Special Representative for Science Diplomacy.

Just four years after its creation by Swiss and Geneva authorities as a think tank and 'do tank' for science and diplomacy, GESDA already plays an important role in Geneva's multilateral hub, Sami Kanaan, an Administrative Councilor who heads Geneva's Department of Culture and Digital Transformation, said on behalf of city and cantonal authorities. "The ecoystem that has been developed over the decades on our territory is truly unique and contains still an immense potential for synergies that we as host authorities must keep alive and always improve," he said.

GESDA Board Member Michael Hengartner, also Board President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), introduced the 3rd annual edition of the GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar?, one of GESDA's two main instruments along with the summit. It contains 42 scientific emerging topics and 324 breakthroughs that are expected to occur over the next quarter-century.

"Over the past three years we have worked together with 1,500 scientists from 73 countries around the globe, through dedicated workshops, symposia and surveys, to identify the potential breakthroughs across five different scientific platforms spanning the physical, digital life and social sciences," said Hengartner, who chairs GESDA's Academic Forum.

Board Member Mamokgethi Phakeng, a mathematics professor and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, emphasized the Radar's use of AI to also take the "pulse of society" through its analysis of 10 million social media posts and 1.3 million mainstream media articles from around the world. "Science and technology are advancing at an exponential rate, but science and technology are not happening in a vaccum," said Phakeng, who chairs GESDA's Citizen Forum and the GESDA Africa Youth and Anticipation Initiative, now in its second year.

"The advances that we cover in the Radar are reshaping or will reshape how we see ourselves as human beings, the way we interact with each other, and our relation to the environment," she told the opening plenary. "And that means their applications, their potential and implications need to be discussed broadly - not only with the scientists who are able to come to the summit, but with people who don't even know that the summit is happening, including people in developing countries who are often left out from the conversations."