by Editor BGF | Apr 2, 2026 | Papers & Reports, News, Publications
America at 250: AI Pioneers
The Leaders Shaping America in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Honored at the America at 250 Conference
Loeb House, Harvard University · Cambridge, Massachusetts · May 1, 2026
Preamble
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, the Boston Global Forum and the AI World Society are proud to recognize fifty scientists, technologists, scholars, and leaders who are most powerfully shaping America’s role in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — and, through America, the governance of AI for the world.
In this recognition, the designation “AI Pioneer” encompasses foundational researchers, builders of large-scale AI systems, and architects of governance, safety, and democratic trust.
The AI age is not a distant future. It is the defining reality of the present — reshaping medicine, education, defense, democracy, and the economy with a speed and scope unmatched by any previous technology. America stands at a hinge point: it can lead the world in governing AI in service of democratic values and human dignity, or it can cede that leadership to frameworks that do not share those values.
The fifty thinkers honored here are helping determine that outcome. They are building AI systems, shaping governance frameworks, protecting democratic values, and demonstrating through their work that the AI age can be — and must be — an age of human flourishing.
As America marks 250 years of democratic self-governance, this recognition is both a celebration and a call. The thinkers leading us into the AI age bear a responsibility as great as that of any generation of American innovators who came before them. Their choices — about safety, equity, transparency, and democratic accountability — will help shape the next 250 years.
This recognition was conceived and curated by Nguyen Anh Tuan, Founder of the AI World Society and Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and CEO of the Boston Global Forum, together with his colleagues at BGF. Distinguished professors have nominated Nguyen Anh Tuan as one of the 50 AI Pioneers, recognizing that his decade-long work in building the AIWS governance framework, the AIWS Social Contract, and the BGF–AIWS Family has made this recognition of America’s AI leadership possible. Consistent with his role as co-author of this volume, Mr. Tuan chose not to include his name in the list.
Selection Criteria
U.S. Leadership & Impact: The thinker has conducted their most consequential work in the United States or through U.S.-based institutions.
AI Age Relevance: The work must directly shape, govern, build, or critically analyze artificial intelligence and its impact on society, democracy, economy, health, education, or security.
Transformative Impact: The contribution must have fundamentally changed a field or domain — not incrementally improved it — with consequences felt at national or global scale.
Breadth of Domain: The list spans six domains to reflect the full range of America’s AI leadership: research, governance, health, economy, education, and security.
Democratic Values: Priority is given to thinkers who have explicitly connected their work to democratic values, human dignity, equity, and the public good.
I. AI Research & Science — The Architects of the AI Age
- Jeff Dean — AI Infrastructure & Systems
Google Senior Fellow and SVP; designed TensorFlow and Google’s TPU chips; co-founded Google Brain; built AI infrastructure that powers AI deployment at global scale.
Era: 1990s–present
- John Hopfield — Neural Networks & Physics of AI
Princeton physicist; invented Hopfield Networks — a foundational model for associative memory that inspired modern deep learning; 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.
Era: 1980s–present
- Chelsea Finn — Meta-Learning & Robotics AI
Stanford professor; pioneer of model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML), enabling AI systems to learn new tasks from very few examples; leading voice on generalizable and embodied AI.
Era: 2010s–present
- Judea Pearl — Causal AI & Bayesian Reasoning
Turing Award 2011; World Leader in AIWS Award recipient; developed Bayesian Networks and the mathematical framework for causal inference — foundational to how AI reasons under uncertainty; his book The Book of Why revolutionized how scientists and AI researchers think about explanation and causality.
Era: 1980s–present
- Vint Cerf — Internet & AI Infrastructure
Co-designed TCP/IP — the internet protocols that gave birth to the global AI ecosystem; widely recognized as a “Father of the Internet”; World Leader in AIWS Award recipient.
Era: 1970s–present
- Yann LeCun — Deep Learning & Computer Vision
Developed convolutional neural networks that power image recognition, autonomous vehicles, and medical AI; Chief AI Scientist at Meta.
Era: 1980s–present
- Fei-Fei Li — Computer Vision & Human-Centered AI
Created ImageNet, the dataset that launched the deep learning revolution; champion of human-centered AI at Stanford; co-director of HAI.
Era: 1990s–present
- Andrew Ng — Deep Learning & AI Education
Pioneer of deep learning at Google Brain and Baidu; co-founded Coursera; democratized AI education for millions worldwide.
Era: 2000s–present
- Sam Altman — Generative AI
CEO of OpenAI; launched ChatGPT, making generative AI accessible to hundreds of millions; catalyzed the current AI transformation of society.
Era: 2010s–present
- Cynthia Breazeal — Social Robotics & Human-AI Interaction
MIT professor and among the earliest creators of sociable robots; created Kismet and Jibo; founder of MIT RAISE, leading AI literacy education for millions of students globally; built the field of social robotics.
Era: 1990s–present
II. AI Governance, Democracy & Ethics — Ensuring AI Serves Humanity
11. Andrej Karpathy — Deep Learning, Autopilot AI & AI Education
Founding member of OpenAI; created Stanford’s CS 231n — the course that trained a generation of AI researchers; led Tesla Autopilot Vision as Director of AI; founder of Eureka Labs, democratizing AI education globally through the “Zero to Hero” series and LLM101n. Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, 2024.
Era: 2010s–present
- Alex “Sandy” Pentland — Data Science & AI Governance
MIT Toshiba Professor, Stanford HAI Fellow. Pioneer in Data Science, Computational Social Science, and AI Governance, including development of GDPR, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the AIWS Social Contract.
Era: 1980s–present
- Daniela Rus — Robotics & AI
Director of CSAIL at MIT; leading researcher in robotics and AI; champion of AI for human flourishing.
Era: 1990s–present
- Alondra Nelson — AI Policy & Equity
Former Acting Director of White House OSTP; architect of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights — a foundational U.S. framework for human-centered AI; World Leader in AIWS Award recipient.
Era: 2010s–present
- Timnit Gebru — Algorithmic Justice & AI Ethics
Co-authored landmark research on facial-recognition bias; founder of DAIR Institute; made algorithmic fairness a central concern of AI development.
Era: 2010s–present
- Joy Buolamwini — Algorithmic Justice
Founded the Algorithmic Justice League; her research exposed racial and gender bias in facial-recognition systems used by governments worldwide.
Era: 2010s–present
- Stuart Russell — AI Safety & Alignment
Author of the definitive AI textbook; founder of the Center for Human-Compatible AI at Berkeley; one of the world’s leading voices on AI alignment.
Era: 1980s–present
- Kate Crawford — AI & Society
Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft; author of Atlas of AI; her work on the social and political dimensions of AI shapes global policy.
Era: 2000s–present
- Shoshana Zuboff — Surveillance Capitalism
Harvard professor; author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism — the definitive account of how AI-driven data extraction threatens democratic society.
Era: 2000s–present
- Eric Schmidt — AI & National Security
Former CEO and Chairman of Google; Chair of the National Security Commission on AI; champion of democratic AI leadership against authoritarian alternatives.
Era: 2000s–present
- Peter Shor — Quantum Computing & AI Cryptography
MIT Institute Professor; invented Shor’s Algorithm (1994) — the quantum algorithm that redefines the cryptographic foundations of the AI age; his work on quantum error correction defines the security horizon of advanced AI systems.
Era: 1990s–present
- Cynthia Dwork — Differential Privacy & Algorithmic Fairness
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard; one of the inventors of differential privacy — the mathematical framework now embedded in every Apple device and the backbone of the 2020 U.S. Census disclosure-avoidance system.
Era: 1990s–present
III. AI & Health, Biology & Medicine — AI for Human Flourishing
- Jennifer Doudna — CRISPR & Genomics
Co-developed CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020; her work, accelerated by AI, may eliminate genetic diseases permanently.
Era: 2010s–present
- Eric Lander — Genomics & Science Policy
Principal leader of the Human Genome Project; founding director of the Broad Institute; Biden’s Science Advisor; champion of AI for equitable health.
Era: 1990s–present
- Katalin Karikó — mRNA Medicine
Pioneered mRNA technology for decades while at the University of Pennsylvania; Nobel Prize 2023; her perseverance made COVID-19 vaccines possible — now accelerated by AI drug discovery.
Era: 1980s–present
- Eric Topol — AI & Medicine
Founder of Scripps Research Translational Institute; leading advocate for AI-augmented medicine; author of Deep Medicine; champion of AI for human doctors.
Era: 2000s–present
- Robert Desimone — Neuroscience & Brain-AI
Director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT; his work on attention and cognition bridges neuroscience and AI.
Era: 1980s–present
- Regina Barzilay — AI & Oncology
MIT School of Engineering Distinguished Professor; MacArthur Fellow 2017; developed AI systems that predict breast cancer up to five years in advance; first recipient of the $1M AAAI Squirrel AI Award; member of National Academy of Medicine.
Era: 2000s–present
- Isaac Kohane — AI & Biomedical Informatics
Chair of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School; pioneer of AI-driven personalized medicine; co-author of The AI Revolution in Medicine; one of the most authoritative voices on AI transformation of healthcare.
Era: 1990s–present
IV. AI & Economy, Business & Innovation — Building the AI Economy
30. Jensen Huang — AI Hardware & Infrastructure
Founded NVIDIA; the GPU became the essential hardware of the AI age — without NVIDIA’s chips, the deep learning revolution could not have happened.
Era: 1990s–present
- Dario Amodei — Safe & Beneficial AI
Co-founded Anthropic after leaving OpenAI over safety concerns; CEO of Anthropic — one of the leading AI safety companies; building AI that is safe, honest, and beneficial.
Era: 2010s–present
- Larry Page — AI & Search Intelligence
Co-founder of Google; PageRank pioneered the algorithmic ranking of information that prefigured AI’s role in organizing human knowledge; Google’s AI investments define the industry.
Era: 1990s–present
- Sergey Brin — AI & Information Architecture
Co-founder of Google; co-designed PageRank and the search infrastructure that made AI-powered information retrieval universal; Google DeepMind is one of the world’s leading AI labs.
Era: 1990s–present
- Satya Nadella — AI & Enterprise
CEO of Microsoft; integrated AI across Microsoft’s entire product suite; the $13B investment in OpenAI made Microsoft one of the leading AI enterprise companies.
Era: 2010s–present
- Jeff Bezos — Cloud & AI Infrastructure
Founded Amazon and AWS — the cloud infrastructure on which most AI systems run; Amazon’s AI investments span Alexa, robotics, and healthcare.
Era: 1990s–present
- Marc Benioff — AI & Ethical Business
CEO of Salesforce; pioneer of AI-integrated enterprise software; vocal advocate for ethical AI, stakeholder capitalism, and technology for social good.
Era: 2000s–present
V. AI, Education & Social Sciences — AI for Knowledge and Society
37. John Schulman — Agentic AI & Reinforcement Learning
Co-founder of OpenAI; inventor of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) — the reinforcement-learning algorithm that is the foundational training backbone of ChatGPT, Claude, and virtually every major AI system; pioneered RLHF.
Era: 2010s–present
- Sal Khan — AI & Education
Founded Khan Academy; launched Khanmigo — one of the most promising AI tutoring systems; democratizing world-class education through AI.
Era: 2000s–present
- John Preskill — Quantum Information & Computing
Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech; founder of the field of quantum information science; coined the term “quantum supremacy”; his work defines the frontier where AI and quantum systems may converge.
Era: 1990s–present
- Daphne Koller — AI & Online Education
Co-founded Coursera; pioneer of probabilistic graphical models; her work on AI-driven personalized learning is reshaping education globally.
Era: 2000s–present
- Robert Putnam — Social Capital & Democratic AI
Harvard political scientist; author of Bowling Alone; his research on social capital and community is essential for understanding AI’s impact on democracy.
Era: 1990s–present
- Sherry Turkle — Technology, Identity & Society
MIT professor; her decades of research on human relationships with technology provide essential insight into AI’s psychological and social dimensions.
Era: 1980s–present
- Beth Simone Noveck — AI Governance & Democratic Innovation
Professor at Northeastern University; Director of The GovLab; nation’s first State Chief AI Strategist (New Jersey); former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama; founder of InnovateUS, America’s largest AI training program for government; author of Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy (Yale University Press, 2026); architect of practical AI governance frameworks deployed across U.S. states and allied governments.
Era: 2000s–present
VI. AI, Security & Defense — Protecting Democracy in the AI Age
44. Paul Nakasone — Cybersecurity & AI Defense
Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director of NSA, 2018–2023; led America’s cyber defense in the AI age; architect of the “defend forward” strategy.
Era: 2010s–present
- Michèle Flournoy — AI & National Security
Former Under Secretary of Defense; co-founder of WestExec Advisors; leading voice on responsible AI in defense and democratic security frameworks.
Era: 2000s–present
- James Clapper — Intelligence & AI
Former Director of National Intelligence; his leadership shaped U.S. intelligence’s adoption of AI while maintaining democratic oversight and civil liberties.
Era: 2000s–2017
- Herbert Lin — AI, Cybersecurity & Policy
Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Hoover Institution; leading expert on cybersecurity policy, AI in warfare, and the governance of autonomous weapons.
Era: 1990s–present
- Katharine Hicks — AI & Defense Policy
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense; champion of responsible AI adoption in defense; architect of the Pentagon’s AI and autonomous systems governance framework.
Era: 2020s–present
- Bruce Schneier — Cybersecurity & AI Trust
Renowned cryptographer and security technologist; his work on trust in digital systems is foundational for AI security and democratic AI governance.
Era: 1990s–present
- Paul Scharre — Autonomous Weapons & AI Ethics
Director of Studies at CNAS; author of Army of None — the definitive work on autonomous weapons; leading advocate for human control of AI in warfare.
Era: 2010s–present
A Note on the List
Any list of fifty will inevitably omit thinkers of the first rank: pioneers such as Robert Kahn, co-inventor of TCP/IP; Yoshua Bengio, whose foundational deep-learning work was conducted in Canada; Geoffrey Hinton, who left Google to warn the world about AI risks; and researchers whose most important contributions may still lie ahead.
The Boston Global Forum and the AI World Society offer this list not as a final judgment, but as both a recognition and a challenge — to the thinkers honored here, and to America itself. The governance choices being made about AI today will create path dependencies as durable as the Constitution itself. The thinkers who make those choices wisely will help define America’s next 250 years.
“The hinge point is not a metaphor. It is a deadline. The governance frameworks being established now will create path dependencies as durable as those of the Constitution itself.” — America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age, Prologue
World AI Pioneers Award
In September 2026, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Boston Global Forum will launch the World AI Pioneers Award — a comprehensive global recognition honoring 50 first movers across all fields and all continents who have pioneered responsible, human-centered AI. The honorees will be convened for a landmark dialogue on the AIWS Trust Order at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2027, contributing to the international AI governance initiative the world urgently requires.
Boston Global Forum · AI World Society
BostonGlobalForum.org · aiws.net
Boston, Massachusetts · 2026
by Editor BGF | Apr 4, 2026 | News
Calls on Japan to Become a Global Leader in AI Trust
TOKYO, March 31, 2026 — Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and CEO of the Boston Global Forum (BGF), delivered a distinguished keynote address at the headquarters of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Tokyo on March 31, 2026.
Organized by LDP leaders as a two-hour program, the event featured Nguyen Anh Tuan’s keynote address followed by a Q&A session. His remarks were introduced by Mr. Kenji Wakamiya, Chairman of the LDP Research Commission on Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Yasuhide Nakayama, Director of the Global South of the Liberal Democratic Party.
In his speech, “Japan as a Global Leader in AI Trust,” Nguyen Anh Tuan argued that in the age of artificial intelligence, nations will be judged not only by the power of the technologies they create, but by the trust they are able to build. He called on Japan to aim not only to be a leader in AI innovation, but to become a global leader in AI trust.
A central theme of the address was the historic legacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom Nguyen Anh Tuan described as a statesman of vision who gave Japan confidence, direction, and a larger mission in the world. He also highlighted the leadership of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, presenting her as carrying that legacy forward in an era shaped by artificial intelligence, national resilience, and global transformation.
Nguyen Anh Tuan introduced key elements of the AIWS framework, including AIWS Trust Architecture, AIWS Trust Rating (ATR), AIWS Trust Index (ATX), and AIWS Trust Infrastructure, presenting them as practical pathways to move trust beyond aspiration and into standards, institutions, implementation, and long-term governance. He argued that Japan, together with trusted partners, is especially well positioned to help shape such an effort in the AI Age.
He also underscored the importance of the LDP Global South Cooperation Headquarters and Japan’s long-standing contributions through ODA and international cooperation, calling this accumulated trust and respect a major national asset. He emphasized that future cooperation can be strengthened through more reciprocal, sustainable, and innovation-driven partnerships, including with countries such as Vietnam.
He concluded that the future will belong not only to those who create more powerful AI, but to those who help humanity trust the age it is entering. (bostonglobalforum.org)
by Editor BGF | Apr 5, 2026 | World Leader for Peace and Security, News, World Leaders in AIWS Award Updates
Tokyo, April 2026 — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and French President Emmanuel Macron used their Tokyo meeting to deepen strategic cooperation as both countries respond to rising geopolitical, economic, and security pressures. Reporting on the summit emphasized a shared push for greater resilience and strategic autonomy, including coordination on the Strait of Hormuz crisis, stronger Indo-Pacific security cooperation, and closer collaboration on critical minerals, civilian nuclear technology, and artificial intelligence.
For the Boston Global Forum, the meeting carries special meaning because it brings together two leaders already honored in BGF’s global award tradition. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was recognized with the 2023 World Leader in AIWS Award, and President Emmanuel Macron received the 2024 World Leader for Peace and Security Award. Seen in that light, the Takaichi–Macron meeting reflects more than a bilateral summit: it represents a broader convergence between Japan and France as democratic powers seeking to strengthen resilience, protect freedom of navigation, secure strategic supply chains, and help shape a more trusted international order in the AI Age.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/04/02/japan/politics/takaichi-macron-meeting-tokyo/
by Editor BGF | Apr 5, 2026 | News, Shaping Futures
Google has introduced Gemma 4 as its most capable open model family to date, designed for advanced reasoning and agentic workflows, and released under an Apache 2.0 license. Google says Gemma has already been downloaded more than 400 million times, with a community that has created over 100,000 variants—showing that open AI is becoming a serious force in the next phase of the AI race. (blog.google)
More importantly, Google is tying this open-model strategy to a strong push for local AI. On Android, Gemma 4 is presented as a new standard for local agentic intelligence, with support for running directly on device hardware through the ML Kit GenAI Prompt API, and for local-first agentic coding in Android Studio. Google says this model can power more privacy-centric, lower-latency, and more cost-effective AI experiences, while also serving as the base model for the next generation of Gemini Nano 4 on Android devices. (Android Developers Blog)
This matters far beyond product strategy. It points to a new phase of AI development in which leadership will be shaped not only by frontier cloud models, but by the ability to build open, local, and agentic intelligence that users and institutions can actually control. That direction resonates strongly with the vision of AIWS Trust Infrastructure: trust in the AI Age will depend not only on model capability, but on accessibility, transparency, privacy, resilience, and real implementation in human-centered systems. (blog.google)
by Editor BGF | Apr 4, 2026 | News
Boston, MA — The America at 250 Conference will feature a special luncheon dialogue, “America at 250: How Storytelling Influences Democracy in the AI Age,” from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM at the Harvard Faculty Club on May 1, 2026.
Moderated by award-winning filmmaker Gita Pullapilly, the luncheon dialogue will include Jimmy Carter grandson and Carter Center Board Chair Jason Carter and Cobra Kai stunt choreographer Don Lee for a timely discussion on how storytelling, film, and cultural leadership can help sustain democratic values and strengthen public trust in a country facing election mistrust and an era shaped by artificial intelligence.
The luncheon discussion will also explore the emerging concept and criteria of Films for Humanity in the Age of AI within the vision of the AIWS Film Park. This includes reflection on what kinds of films and storytelling should be encouraged in the AI Age: works that affirm human dignity, strengthen empathy, promote truth and responsibility, inspire reconciliation, and contribute to the cultural foundations of democracy and freedom.
By bringing together diverse voices from film, civic leadership, and public life, this discussion will highlight a central message of the America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age Conference: that America’s future in the AI Age will depend not only on technological innovation, but also on the strength of the accuracy of public knowledge, cultural influencers, and the principles behind democracy.
Event Details
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Luncheon Dialogue: Storytelling, Democracy, and America at 250
Hollywood and the Future of Freedom in the AI Age
Harvard Faculty Club
Moderator:
Gita Pullapilly
Panelists:
Jason Carter, Carter Center Board Chair and Jimmy Carter grandson
Don Lee, veteran entertainment industry professional and stunt choreographer
About the America at 250 Conference
The America at 250 Conference is a major gathering marking the 250th anniversary of the United States and examining America’s leadership role in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Hosted by the Boston Global Forum, the conference brings together leaders, scholars, innovators, and cultural voices to explore democracy, trust, freedom, and humanity in the AI Age.
Media Contact
Boston Global Forum
bostonglobalforum.org
[email protected]
by Editor BGF | Apr 5, 2026 | Global Alliance for Digital Governance
A new TIME essay by Renée DiResta, published on April 2, 2026, warns that AI propaganda has entered a new phase: the objective is often no longer persuasion in the traditional sense, but virality itself. She argues that generative AI now makes it cheap and easy to produce polished propaganda at scale, blur the line between official messaging and imitation, and package war in the visual language of memes, games, parody, and spectacle.
The essay’s core insight is especially important for the AI Age: on social media, the currency is often engagement, not authority or accuracy. Content spreads because it is familiar, shocking, funny, or surreal—not necessarily because people believe it. Users do not need to agree with propaganda to amplify it; they only need to react to it, watch it, or share it. DiResta describes this as a shift toward participatory propaganda, in which the audience itself becomes the distribution channel.
She points to examples involving Iranian AI-generated LEGO-style war videos, White House AI-styled gaming visuals, earlier ISIS media, and Chinese and Russian uses of similar aesthetics to show that this is now an international pattern. Her larger warning is that the effect is not only ideological but environmental: viral propaganda shapes what feels important, ridiculous, triumphant, or righteous, often pushing factual reporting into the background. In this environment, people increasingly encounter war first as content, and only later, if at all, as news.
This is precisely why the idea of AIWS Information Trust Infrastructure matters. In the AI Age, protecting democracy and public trust requires more than fact-checking after the fact. It requires institutions, standards, provenance systems, trusted knowledge frameworks, resilience against manipulation, and stronger public capacity to distinguish spectacle from truth. The warning in this article reinforces a central AIWS principle: trust must not remain an abstract ideal. It must be built into the information environment itself. (TIME)
https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/when-virality-is-the-message-the-new-age-of-ai-propaganda/
by Editor BGF | Mar 31, 2026 | News
Innovation, Responsibility, and Humanity in the AI Age
Distinguished leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party,
distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen,
Before I begin, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr. Yasuhide Nakayama, Director of the Global South of the Liberal Democratic Party, an outstanding leader, a pride of Japan, and a great source of pride for the Boston Global Forum, for his friendship, vision, and steadfast support.
I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Kenji Wakamiya, Chairman of the LDP Research Commission on Foreign Affairs, for his generous support.
I would further like to express my appreciation to the LDP Global South Cooperation Headquarters, under the leadership of Mr. Koichi Hagiuda, for its important support and leadership.
It is a profound honor for me to speak here today at the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party.
This is not only a political institution.
It is a place deeply connected to the modern history of Japan —
to national reconstruction,
to stability,
to responsibility,
and to the long work of serving the Japanese people through times of change and challenge.
Today, Japan stands once again at such a historic moment.
We are entering a new age shaped by artificial intelligence, semiconductors, data, cybersecurity, and strategic competition.
The world is changing quickly.
Economies are being transformed.
Institutions are being tested.
Human life, work, learning, and even truth itself are being reshaped by new technologies.
In such a time, nations will be judged not only by the power of the technologies they create, but by the trust they are able to build —
trust in innovation,
trust in institutions,
trust in democratic governance,
and trust in the future of humanity.
Before I speak further, I would like to speak from the heart about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister Abe was not only a great leader of Japan.
He was a statesman with historic vision.
He understood that Japan must never be passive in times of global transformation.
He believed that Japan had both the right and the responsibility to help shape the future of the international order.
He gave Japan confidence.
He gave Japan direction.
He gave Japan a larger mission in the world.
His vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific was not only a geopolitical strategy.
It was a moral vision — rooted in freedom, openness, rule of law, partnership, dignity, and responsibility.
At the Boston Global Forum, which I co-founded with Governor Michael Dukakis, we have long regarded Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as one of the defining statesmen of our era.
He gave Japan confidence,
gave the Indo-Pacific a strategic vision,
and gave the democratic world a powerful example of leadership rooted in principle and responsibility.
That is why I founded the Shinzo Abe Initiative —
to honor his enduring legacy
and to continue advancing the values he stood for:
freedom,
openness,
trust,
strategic courage,
and responsibility to future generations.
This initiative reflects both our institutional respect at BGF and my own deep personal admiration for Prime Minister Abe.
That spirit remains deeply relevant today.
At the same time, Japan today is fortunate to be guided by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whose leadership reflects a strong commitment to national resilience, strategic clarity, and the continuation of Japan’s role as a proactive contributor to the international order.
Under her leadership, Japan is well positioned not only to uphold the legacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but to advance it in the new era shaped by artificial intelligence and global transformation.
Because in the age of artificial intelligence, the world again needs countries that do not simply react to history, but help shape it.
And I believe Japan has a new historic mission in this century.
Not only to develop advanced technology.
Not only to strengthen competitiveness.
Not only to secure national resilience.
But also to help humanity build trust in the age it is entering.
That is why I would like to make a simple but important proposition:
Japan should aim not only to be a leader in AI innovation.
Japan should aim to be a global leader in AI trust.
Because the next great global question will not be only:
Who builds the most powerful AI?
The deeper question will be:
Who helps humanity trust AI?
Who helps institutions use AI responsibly?
Who helps democratic societies preserve truth, dignity, and accountability in an age of synthetic media and autonomous systems?
Who helps create a framework in which innovation and responsibility advance together?
I believe Japan can help lead this effort.
Japan has qualities that the world urgently needs in the AI Age.
Japan represents seriousness.
Japan represents reliability.
Japan represents discipline.
Japan represents quality.
Japan represents long-term responsibility.
Japan represents respect for society and for the human consequences of power.
These are not only admirable cultural virtues.
In the AI Age, they are strategic strengths.
Artificial intelligence will transform industry, government, education, medicine, security, and public life.
It will create new possibilities, but also new risks.
It will bring progress, but also uncertainty.
It will expand human capability, but it may also weaken trust if societies do not act wisely.
If trust weakens, institutions weaken.
If truth weakens, democracy weakens.
If responsibility weakens, technology becomes a source of fear rather than hope.
That is why trust must become one of the great tasks of leadership in our time.
In the AI Age, trust cannot remain only a slogan.
It cannot remain only a wish.
It cannot remain only a noble appeal.
Trust must be built.
Trust must be measured.
Trust must be standardized.
Trust must be implemented.
Trust must become part of institutions and infrastructure.
This is where I believe Japan, together with trusted partners, can make an important and lasting contribution.
The first contribution is AIWS Trust Architecture.
AIWS Trust Architecture is a framework for thinking seriously about trustworthy AI.
It is about principles, standards, criteria, and implementation pathways.
It asks not only what AI can do, but how AI systems, institutions, and ecosystems can become worthy of trust.
It moves us from aspiration to structure.
The second contribution is AIWS Trust Rating, or ATR.
If trust is important, it must also become measurable.
ATR offers a way to evaluate the trustworthiness of AI systems, organizations, and initiatives according to standards such as transparency, safety, fairness, accountability, and responsibility.
In the future, performance alone will not be enough.
Capability alone will not be enough.
Nations and institutions will increasingly need to show that their AI systems deserve confidence.
The third contribution is AIWS Trust Index, or ATX.
ATX can help assess the broader condition of trust across sectors, institutions, and societies.
It can help identify where trust is strong,
where it is fragile,
and where action is needed.
In the AI Age, we will need not only indicators of growth and performance, but also indicators of trust.
And the fourth contribution is AIWS Trust Infrastructure.
This may be the most important contribution of all.
Because trust is not built by speeches alone.
Trust is built through standards.
Through institutions.
Through oversight.
Through education.
Through public understanding.
Through verification.
Through accountability.
Through real implementation in real systems.
Infrastructure is what makes values durable.
Infrastructure is what allows societies to move from promise to practice.
Infrastructure is what helps trust survive beyond rhetoric.
Japan is especially well suited to help shape such an effort.
Because Japan has long experience building systems that people rely on.
Because Japan understands that legitimacy is earned through consistency and responsibility.
Because Japan knows that trust is not created by words alone, but by conduct, performance, duty, and enduring institutions.
This, I believe, is also deeply consistent with the spirit and history of the Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP has guided Japan through many turning points — reconstruction after war, economic rise, international partnership, social stability, and national resilience.
The LDP understands responsibility over time.
It understands continuity.
It understands that leadership is not only about immediate advantage, but about protecting the foundations of the nation for future generations.
Today, another turning point is before us.
This transition is not only economic.
It is not only technological.
It is civilizational.
AI will change how governments govern.
It will change how citizens receive information.
It will change how trust is formed or weakened.
It will change how power is exercised.
It will change how future generations live.
So the responsibility of leadership becomes greater, not smaller.
We must think not only of the next political cycle, but of the next generation.
Not only of present advantage, but of future legitimacy.
Not only of growth, but of the moral and institutional foundations on which enduring growth depends.
This is why I believe Japan’s historic mission in the AI Age is not only to compete, but to lead.
To lead with innovation.
To lead with standards.
To lead with trust.
To lead with responsibility.
To lead with humanity.
And Japan should not do this alone.
This is also why the policy direction of the LDP Global South Cooperation Headquarters is so meaningful.
Strengthening engagement with the Global South is now recognized as a critically important priority.
Across many countries, there is a deep sense of appreciation for Japan’s longstanding contributions through ODA and many other forms of international cooperation.
These efforts have earned Japan a high level of trust and respect around the world, and this should be recognized as an important national asset.
At the same time, it is equally important to develop this cooperation in ways that create more tangible and mutually beneficial outcomes for all sides.
International cooperation should not only contribute to partner countries, but also generate clear and understandable value for the people of Japan, including its citizens and taxpayers.
In this regard, frameworks that combine contribution with reciprocity — strengthening resilient supply chains, supporting the overseas expansion of Japanese companies, and creating shared economic opportunities — can make Japan’s international engagement even more sustainable and effective.
This would not diminish Japan’s spirit of contribution; rather, it would strengthen that spirit in a more strategic and sustainable way.
It is also highly important to support innovative startups with advanced technologies, regardless of their national origin, in ways that create win-win partnerships between Japan and countries such as Vietnam.
Through such cooperation, we can stimulate both economies, create shared value, and contribute to the growth and prosperity of both nations.
I would greatly welcome the opportunity to deepen cooperation in these areas.
Japan can do this with partners —
with the United States,
with Europe,
with India,
with ASEAN,
with the nations of the Global South,
with democratic and like-minded nations,
with great universities and research institutions,
with cities and civic institutions,
and with all those who understand that the future of AI must be shaped not only by power, but by trust.
In this way, Japan can help build something larger than a national strategy.
Japan can help build a trusted order for humanity in the AI Age.
And such an order must remain firmly anchored in first principles.
Unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force must never be accepted.
The international order must be upheld on the basis of rules, responsibility, and trust.
This principle has long been central to Japan’s diplomacy, and it is just as important in the AI Age.
If we want trustworthy technology, we must also defend a trustworthy international order.
And I believe that in doing so, Japan would honor the deeper legacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister Abe believed that Japan should think strategically, act with confidence, and contribute to an international order grounded in principle.
He believed that Japan must not stand at the edge of history, but help shape it.
He believed that leadership requires courage, responsibility, and a clear sense of duty to future generations.
In our time, that same spirit can guide Japan once again.
In the age of artificial intelligence, Japan has the opportunity not only to remain a great nation of innovation, but to become a great nation of trust — helping to build a future in which technology serves humanity, strengthens freedom, respects dignity, and upholds responsibility.
In helping shape trust for humanity in the AI Age, Japan would not only serve the future.
It would also extend the legacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a new century and a new era of history.
That would be a mission worthy of Japan.
A mission worthy of the Liberal Democratic Party.
And a mission worthy of the memory of a leader who gave Japan a larger vision of its place in the world.
Let me close with this thought.
The future will not belong only to those who create more powerful AI.
The future will belong to those who help humanity trust the age it is entering.
Japan can be one of those leaders.
Japan can help shape AIWS Trust Architecture.
Japan can help advance AIWS Trust Rating.
Japan can help develop AIWS Trust Index.
Japan can help build AIWS Trust Infrastructure with partners.
And in doing so, Japan can give the AI Age what it will most deeply need:
not only innovation,
but trust;
not only power,
but legitimacy;
not only intelligence,
but humanity.
And as Japan does so, the spirit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will continue to live — not only in memory, but in mission; not only in history, but in the future Japan helps to build.
May Japan lead this new age with wisdom, with courage, and with trust — in a way worthy of its history, worthy of its people, and worthy of the enduring legacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Thank you very much.
Nguyễn Anh Tuấn
LDP Headquarter, Tokyo, March 31, 2026
by Editor BGF | Mar 29, 2026 | World Leader for Peace and Security, News
The Boston Global Forum is honored to announce that Vint Cerf will receive the 2026 World Leader for Peace and Security Award as a symbolic representative of the American people at the America at 250 Conference on May 1, 2026, at Loeb House, Harvard University. Vint Cerf will speak on “Building Information Trust Infrastructure for Democracy in the AI Age.” (Boston Global Forum)
This honor carries profound meaning. Vint Cerf is widely recognized as one of the Fathers of the Internet, a visionary whose work helped create the digital foundation of the modern world. For the Boston Global Forum, his role at America at 250 symbolizes not only American innovation, but also the enduring values of openness, creativity, responsibility, and service to humanity that have shaped the United States across 250 years. (Boston Global Forum)
His presence is especially meaningful in the history of BGF and AIWS. In 2019, Boston Global Forum honored Vint Cerf as World Leader in AI World Society, recognizing both his foundational contribution to the Internet and his commitment to ensuring that digital technology serves humanity with wisdom and responsibility. (Boston Global Forum)
By receiving the 2026 World Leader for Peace and Security Award in this symbolic role, Vint Cerf stands at the intersection of two great American stories: the story of a nation marking its 250th anniversary, and the story of technological leadership reshaping the world in the AI Age. His selection reflects a central message of the America at 250 Conference: that America’s leadership must be grounded not only in scientific and technological achievement, but also in trust, human dignity, and a larger responsibility to the future of humanity. (Boston Global Forum)
by Editor BGF | Mar 25, 2026 | News
Jason Carter and Vint Cerf to Receive the Award as Symbolic Representatives at the America at 250 Conference, Harvard University Loeb House, May 1, 2026
Boston, Mass., March 25, 2026 — The Boston Global Forum (BGF) today announced the presentation of the 2026 World Leader for Peace and Security Award, honoring the leaders of the United States and the American people on the occasion of America’s 250th anniversary. The award will be presented at the America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age Conference on Friday, May 1, 2026, at Harvard University Loeb House in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The 2026 World Leader for Peace and Security Award recognizes America’s historic and enduring contributions to peace, security, democratic values, and human progress. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Boston Global Forum honors not only the nation’s leaders, but also the spirit, creativity, and civic courage of the American people — whose contributions to science, culture, innovation, and democratic life have helped shape the modern world.
The Award Recipients
The award will be received by two distinguished symbolic representatives.
Jason Carter, Chairman of The Carter Center Board of Trustees and grandson of President Jimmy Carter, will receive the award representing the moral leadership legacy of the United States through President Jimmy Carter. President Carter’s lifetime of service — advancing health and human rights, brokering peace, combating disease, and defending democracy around the world — remains one of the most powerful expressions of American moral leadership. Jason Carter will deliver special remarks titled “America as a Moral Beacon: Continuing the Carter Legacy of Peace, Human Rights, and Trusted Innovation in the Age of AI.”
Vint Cerf, widely recognized as one of the “fathers of the internet,” will receive the award representing the creativity, innovation, and civic spirit of the American people in the digital age. As co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols that form the foundation of the internet, Cerf helped create the global network that transformed human communication, commerce, knowledge, and civic life. He will speak on “Building Information Trust Infrastructure for Democracy in the AI Age.”
“America’s greatest contributions to the world have never been its power alone — but its ideals: liberty, democracy, and the belief that human beings, given the right conditions, can build a more just and peaceful world. At 250, those ideals are more needed than ever.” — Governor Michael S. Dukakis, Co-Author, America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age
The conference will also feature the presentation of the book America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age, co-authored by Governor Michael S. Dukakis and Nguyen Anh Tuan, together with high-level discussions on building Trust Infrastructure and a new Trust Order in the AI Age.
About the World Leader for Peace and Security Award
Founded in 2015, the World Leader for Peace and Security Award is presented annually by the Boston Global Forum to honor heads of state, heads of government, and leaders of international organizations whose leadership has made significant contributions to peace, security, and democratic values on the world stage. Past recipients have included Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Sauli Niinistö, President Ursula von der Leyen, and President Emmanuel Macron. The 2026 award marks a historic occasion: honoring the United States of America on the 250th anniversary of its founding.
About the Boston Global Forum
The Boston Global Forum (BGF) is a leading think tank dedicated to advancing democratic values, trusted innovation, and global governance in the AI Age. BGF founded the AI World Society (AIWS) and convenes world leaders, scholars, innovators, and policymakers to develop frameworks for peace, security, democracy, and human-centered progress.
Media Contact
Boston Global Forum
Email: [email protected]
Website: bostonglobalforum.org
