President Donald Trump has yet again praised the Pakistani leadership, this time at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), saying that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is a “terrific” man.
“Pakistan is a great country. PM Shehbaz Sharif, a terrific man,” he said during his speech at the UNGA on Monday, where he spoke on wide-ranging issues — from Iran to artificial intelligence.
Trump said the prime minister called him to thank him for the US role in helping Pakistan with “something that was very important”.
“Pakistan is a great country. PM Shehbaz Sharif, a terrific man, called me to say thank you,” Trump said.
Trump also claimed he had “settled eight wars”.
Iran war
Turning to the Iran war, the US president used the forum to argue that the war with Iran prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and warned that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” if no deal is reached to end the conflict.
While predicting his administration would strike a peace deal with Iran following the November 3 US mid-term elections, Trump called on other nations to join America in isolating Iran economically to force it to the negotiating table.
“I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” Trump said. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”
Trump added: “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election.”
Int’l supervision of artificial intelligence
Trump also rejected calls for international supervision of artificial intelligence, calling them a “globalist scheme” to control the new technology.
He announced that the US government would henceforth use the term “super intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence” in its communications, hoping that the world would follow suit.
“It sounds much better” and “it’s much more accurate,” he added, musing on whether the rest of the world would adopt the term.
Trump also dismissed warnings from AI safety advocates, comparing them to warnings about climate change, whose human causes are affirmed by the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community.
“Every major new technology brings challenges, and super intelligence is no exception,” he said.
“The very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming… are now saying that AI is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.”
This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.
