Musings on AI and Human Development
By Natalie Cyphers PhD, RN, CPN, is a Transcultural Nursing Society member who attended CSW70 as part of our NGO delegation.
As many of my colleagues have testified, the experience of being a delegate for TCNS at the UN 70th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was life changing. As someone who has spent many years supporting missionaries around the globe and sponsoring refugee families from Africa as part of my local congregation, the plight of women and girls around the world is not a new phenomenon to me. However, hearing the sobering magnitude and depth of the life experiences of women around the globe at CSW70 was overwhelming. I still tear up when thinking about CSW; my heart aches to be a change and to speak for change.
As such, I have sought to keep informed about other happenings at the UN since March. Our voices as nurses, especially transcultural nurses, are vital to the discussions and I am passionate about our voices advocating for the global sisterhood.
On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, the United Nations held a meeting on AI and Human Development during the 81st General Assembly. As a previous delegate for TCNS to the 70th CSW, I received permission from TCNS to attend. AI and Human Development brought two important conversations together; philosophical and ethical considerations regarding AI and some practical approaches to implementation. Three main points emerged through the meeting:
- What is the impact of AI on humanity?
- Recognition that AI is a mirror that reflects what it is shown.
- Who is the “we” that decides how AI is used?
These questions were woven throughout the panel and were answered in different ways. The dichotomy of the impact of AI on humanity is apparent. While the advances of AI offer opportunities for some, these advances are not yet available to all. The cost of AI to the environment must also be acknowledged. James Manyika, president of Research, Labs, Technology & Society, Google Alphabet, noted the possibilities that exist for global health changes as innovation is shared. He noted that AI is an invention for making inventions (such as identifying cures for diseases or predicting disasters). Yet 70% of the population has never used generative AI (Doreen Bogdan Martin, Secretary -General of the International Telecommunications Union) and data centers consume a lot of energy and water resources. Much attention was given to the recognition that AI is a mirror that reflects what it is shown. In fact, Amir Siraj, an astrophysicist, noted “AI is an algorithmic recombination of human inputs, taken without consent.” Data that has been gathered, without people knowing. Yet, this data represents only a small slice of humanity, whole languages and histories are absent. Therefore, a child in a country in Africa sees an AI that does not reflect her image. The technology experts indicated inputting the voice of other languages into AI is not difficult, but data scientists are needed to help this long term. Lastly, a call was made to provide safeguards for the ever changing generative AI, and yet a sobering understanding that its exponential growth makes these safeguards a moving target. The challenges do not eliminate the responsibility of the global community to provide human control of AI. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, discussed a binding contract that was made between Microsoft and the second largest teachers union in the US on September 9, 2026. In this binding contract, Microsoft agreed to not provide any software that would negatively impact the relationships between teachers and students so that humans continue to develop by connecting with other humans. This is one example of something that can be done now to provide ethical guardrails for AI use. While AI use will continue to grow globally, our humanity does not have to be in jeopardy. People were designed for community and relationship, designed for tribes as Ella Al-Shamahi, Explorer and Paleoanthropologist noted. Though technology has inadvertently replaced some of these relationships, the true essence of being human cannot be replicated by machines. How we choose to live alongside AI technology is a decision that must be made by the people of the world, the broadest “we” that is possible.
Acknowledgement:
“This work is disseminated in partnership with the Transcultural Nursing Society (TCNS), a Non‑Governmental Organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2025. The author served as a delegate from TCNS to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), held March 9–19, 2026. The perspectives presented here are grounded in TCNS’s mission to advance transcultural nursing knowledge, practice, research, and global health equity.”