Inside Dubai's mission to build the city of the future | with His Excellency Khalfan Belhoul, Whitney Pennington Rodgers

0:03You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. What does it look like when a government becomes a laboratory for the future?

0:15Khalfan Belhoul: So you get the entrepreneurs, you get the investors, and you back it up by also investing as government and create an environment which is what we call the sandbox environment, which is really testing those ideas in a safe manner. That's His Excellency Kalfan Belhul. He's the CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation. He sat down with TED curator Whitney Pennington Rogers for a conversation about the ways Dubai is supporting bold experimentation in everything from AI and emerging tech to innovative finance solutions and climate change. They discuss why governments and organizations must embrace failure as an integral part of progress, and why global collaboration is the only path forward in this age of AI, climate risk, and geopolitical tension.

1:00Khalfan Belhoul: The world has recently been giving us so many signs, so many signs, that there's no other way forward than us to all get together. That's coming up after a quick break.

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4:08and now our conversation of the day thank you for being here your excellency you run the dubai future foundation for those of us who are not initiated what what is a future

4:20Khalfan Belhoul: foundation so imagine um you run a lab and the owner of the lab comes to you and says you can do whatever you want and you have my full backing and you have solid amount of financial resources. If rules are an issue, we can change them for you. We can connect you with any relevant decision maker to break those rules. We will not be upset if you make mistakes and we will support you on every winning bet you make. And in summary, will you take that? I would take that deal, yeah. Okay, so the owner of the lab is Sheikh Mohammed Barashid. The lab is Dubai Future Foundation. So that's how it is. We are entitled and empowered to explore new ideas, to see where the future is heading.

5:17Khalfan Belhoul: We've been supported and backed by a top board of trustees. I mean, our chairman is the crown prince. The board members are ministers and director generals across all sectors, which means if we want to disrupt mobility, we can. If we want to talk health tech, we can. If we want to explore fintech, we can. We have the muscle behind us, and we have the support in case we fail. The unique thing is this makes us, which is usually, and I'm sure you're aware from, I mean, the global landscape, that usually governments are hurdle or they take time or they're bureaucratic. We are hearing from our leaders that we can actually do this.

5:57Khalfan Belhoul: This is music to our ears. So this pushes us. This makes us comfortable in actually pivoting. And if we have any venture capitalists out here, you would understand this more than anyone. They don't talk about 80 % of their portfolio that goes bust, but they really back the winning bets. But they've all made those mistakes, but they don't look at them as mistakes. They look at them as learning points. And I think this mindset that's been given to us from leaders to really explore and test and double down on winning bets is what made the Dubai Future Foundation a success. I think a lot of nations and a lot of cities talk about this idea of progress and being futurist, but it's hard to sustain that.

6:38And so what are some of the ways that you're able to get buy-in and to be able to embed in both government and culture futurist thinking?

6:46Khalfan Belhoul: What we do is we start, first of all, by ensuring that our internal team are experts in understanding where the future is heading. So we invest a lot in people that have this as their subject matter expertise when it comes to future foresight. So we invest a lot on internal talent. So we have a foresight team that does horizon scanning on a constant basis. And this becomes our engine. But we don't stop there because this is not only confined to us as Dubai Future Foundation. We also connect with like-minded networks from all over the world that also feed us more information. And then this gives us a view of where the future is heading.

7:30Khalfan Belhoul: And the further you go, the grayer it becomes. We can maybe have a better prediction of what's happening in 2026. The more you go, the more challenging the guests would be, right? But the more conversations you have, the more inclusion there is in the conversation, the better visibility you have. And then it's all about being agile and flexible and getting everyone involved and having the guts to really test. Test, but at the same time, create a safe environment in testing. So you get the entrepreneurs, you get the investors, and you back it up by also investing as government and create an environment which is what we call the sandbox environment, which is really testing those ideas in a safe manner.

8:10Khalfan Belhoul: For example, if you're looking at last mile drone deliveries, you're not going to deploy that before you actually make sure it's safe for people. So you need that physical space for that. On the less physical and less tangible kind of projects, you look at the crypto world and the digital assets. You don't see them in front of you, but the value of them is immense. But can we actually open them up to the market before we create a virtual safe environment, including all the relevant parties to have a proper conversation on a deployment basis. I mean, we can do as much of that as we want. But if there wasn't a mechanism of ensuring that this can be deployed safely and in a unified way, then we'll just be talking to ourselves.

8:54Well, and I think Dubai represents such a compelling example of economic transformation, shifting away from oil revenue to other spaces like tourism. Can you talk about the current economic state of Dubai and sort of how you think that will influence where the city is headed?

9:12Khalfan Belhoul: We are living in a very turbulent environment. The Middle East is a very tough neighborhood. Our country is not so big from a size perspective, but the ambitions are bigger than anyone. We have tensions around the world, whether it's big nations conflicting on economical issues, geopolitical issues. And the country has pushed itself to be a bridge of peace when it comes to business, when it comes to geopolitics. And I think this is what really attracted people to really come to Dubai. We, as maybe locals, tend to underestimate the safety factor and the prosperity factor. We just got too comfortable and got too used to it.

9:58Khalfan Belhoul: But when we have conversations with our fellow expats that come in and choose Dubai or the UAE as home, we listen to them, and this gives me goosebumps on how those small details of safety and prosperity for them and their families means so much that makes us really appreciate the structure here. But again, I say we're not perfect. We've done our fair share of mistakes, but we double down on what we do right. We seem to be in a very transformative moment as a world. And what role do you think when you think about things like, you know, beyond even just geopolitical tensions, as you mentioned, and economic issues, when you think about existential threats, for instance, like climate change or the rise of artificial intelligence?

10:46What role do you see futurist thinking playing in global progress?

10:49Khalfan Belhoul: So I'll tell you my humble advice. The world has recently been giving us so many signs, so many signs that there's no other way forward than us to all get together. You've mentioned them. Geopolitical issues, they're not going to work. We need to work together for peace. Digital economy, which is in trillions of dollars when you talk about the value of AI. We're talking, economy-wise, we're talking about trillions. So that's another sign. Climate change. How can we resolve for that? There needs to be, we've seen it in COP announcements and beyond, there needs to be unity. AI. I mean, if I start to talk about it, I won't stop.

11:39Khalfan Belhoul: I mean, how many of us, let me maybe start with you. How much do you use ChatGPT, Grok, or you name it, like those LLMs, do you use it? Regularly, yeah. Do you use it daily? Probably, yeah. I use it daily. Raise of hands, do you use it daily? Okay. Do you use it to the extent that you actually feel there's a person sitting on the other side talking to you? Not yet, but I know many who do. I'm close to that. I'm telling you from the fact that we interact and the emotional angle sometimes you get and the responses, and we haven't even scratched the surface on how we will deal with that. And you feel so comfortable talking to ChatGPT on many of those LLMs.

12:20Khalfan Belhoul: So imagine you actually, this gets, and I've said this, maybe it might sound like a broken record to my colleagues, but imagine having this conversation with a robot that looks like a human, which we are not far from seeing. And I promise you that this is going to come very soon with the same intellect of the chat GPT and even a thousand times much more than that. What happens to humanity and how do we really interact even from an emotional standpoint? We have some weak and vulnerable individuals around the world that can feel more comfortable with robots than humans. So what would this mean to us as humanity?

12:59Khalfan Belhoul: Are we going to get attached to robots? How are we going to regulate that? How are we going to really extract value of artificial intelligence? That's why I'm saying what we see with chat GPT now is the first second of the first minute of the first hour of the first day of the first year of this beast that has so much value but that we really need to embrace and we need to embrace jointly. And there's no chance that Dubai or the UAE or the Middle East can do it alone. nor does the US, nor does China. It's a collaborative effort. And even look at our kids now, their attachment to technology, what is the right balance?

13:41Khalfan Belhoul: They're so smart in front of screens, but if you ask them to come on stage and have a conversation, they might not be as comfortable because they're just so involved into technologies and they do things that I'll probably never think of doing because they're so into it and they're doing such an amazing job. But life is not only about that. It's how you strike the balance and how do we really huddle up together as humanity because technology is super valuable, but humans are more important. Well, Your Excellency, I cannot let you go without asking you this last question. You spend so much time thinking about the future.

14:13What do you think is the big thing that many of us are missing when we think about what's ahead?

14:17Khalfan Belhoul: There's one that sticks out to me. So I'll mention a few and then I'll tell you which one I think is the... So, I mean, longevity and living to, especially with the neuroscience and the advancement of neuroscience at the moment, we can see people living until 150 years. And this is not far from now. So this is, I think, a statement that I know is exciting and exciting to many. I'm not sure if you guys are excited about this, but many people, if you're in good health, you would want to live to 150. But I think this is not far off, given the advancement as well of genetics and DNA sampling and, like I said, neuroscience.

14:55Khalfan Belhoul: I think humans being a multi-planetary species, we're not far from that as well. The access to different planets has become easier and easier and cost-effective. So this is also a bold kind of thought that's probably exciting scientists to actually... I'm not sure if we... I think we have enough on Earth. I don't know if we want to be there, but of course, I mean, having that is something that everyone is excited about. It's a bold statement, but achievable. But the one that really, really, really makes me think a lot is slightly relevant to the comment that I mentioned, is once you really infuse human intelligence with artificial intelligence into one neural network.

15:44Khalfan Belhoul: And when this happens, I think this is when things are going to be really exciting. because we're talking about AI being super smart, AI being almost human-like, and this is, to the previous point, this is happening and happening very soon. Look at how we're dealing with chat GPT. But then what if AI was infused in a human and having a single kind of network that connects human intelligence with artificial intelligence? I think with neuroscience, this is not very far, And this is something that really requires, again, collaboration, understanding, and unity, because this is a whole new world. Well, Your Excellency, this has been insightful and exciting.

16:31I'm sure I speak for everyone here. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you. Your Excellency, Kalfan Belhul.

16:42That was His Excellency, Kalfan Belhul, in conversation with Whitney Pennington Rogers at TED at BCG. in Dubai in 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonsika Sungmarnivong. This episode was mixed by Lucy Little. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feet.

17:21Thanks for listening.

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