Nazım Salur | AI Symposium 2026 | Industry Highlight

I would like you to do something for me because I want this talk to be an interactive one rather than a one-way communication. So can the people sitting at the back come to the front as much as possible so we can interact. I can see you more and then I'm going to have some questions. I can hear you if you ask a question. Can you please do that?

So this is an audience where I don't have to really talk about the possibilities of AI, what AI is, what AI can become, how it can shape the world, how it can help us. There are so many good things AI can bring to our world and to ourselves. But having said that, like with every good thing, there comes some threats. So although I'm a firm believer of what AI can bring to the world, I also have some worries. I'm like 90% positive on what AI will bring. But still in my mind I have a 10% pessimism if AI gets out of control or AI is used for the wrong reasons. The power is accumulated in the wrong hands. AI uses, let's say, automatic killing machines or AI is used in economy so that poor gets even poorer, rich gets even richer and the goodness that AI may create is not shared in the world. The abundance that is there to be happening is not benefited by the masses. So these are all possibilities and a 10% possibility is not a small possibility and the worst possibility is if AI gets out of control in a way that will end the humankind as we know it. So any invention that humankind did before, none of these inventions were able to get out of control. The most dangerous invention we had was nuclear power. Actually, we had nuclear weapons, but still nuclear weapons don't act on their own. Somebody needs to push the button. So, they were always under humankind's control, but with where AI is going, AI may seriously get out of control. So if let's say hypothetically, I don't have the number but let's say 0.1% of people today are somehow working on AI or something related with AI or thinking of using AI as a tool in their job or in their politics or in their whatever they're doing. 0.1% of the world population means 8 million people. 8 billion. 8 million. Okay. So all those 8 million, almost all of them are working on creating something out of AI, making something more efficient, trying to make their businesses or whatever they're doing make more money or get the same results with less input, get greater outputs and make things faster, better, this and that. But if there's a 10% chance, and I believe there is, and you may put your chances, maybe you believe there's a 1% chance or 25% chance, I believe at least 10% of the people should be also working on getting AI in shape and keeping it safe. So, but keeping AI safe doesn't make you money and keeping AI safe is very hard to finance. I mean, all these VCs are financing things that you can create with AI so that they can make money, they can get their paychecks and they can multiply their bets, which is fine. But who should do the safety bit? I think governments should do it and not only governments, we should also create, the world needs to create an authority, international authority like a United Nations authority. Well, United Nations actually is not working very well but a real good authority that is functional about AI safety. So it is never the end of mankind as we know it. So that needs to be done by governments, funded by governments and instead of the superpowers such as US and China or semi-superpowers like Russia and the medium powers like European countries, us included, especially the top 20 countries in the world, all of us should contribute to this and make it safe because if you take as an example all the medicines we're using today, we are living on average much longer because of this but in the early days of this, everybody created some medicine and said this is good but there were so many side effects and so much wrong was done. At the end every government established an authority like in America there's FDA and getting a new pill on the market now takes 5 to 10 years so that while trying to create goodness you don't really hurt people. So with AI, although things are going very fast and I like fast, I mean I was the founder of a company that in big cities 10-minute delivery for the first time, I like fast. In AI, on certain instances I don't like it this fast because it may get out of control. So I believe, normally I don't believe too much government interference in business. I believe in freedom to do what you think. But in an industry like AI generally, I think we need an international authority and government authorities to oversee what's happening. So the other part, the 90% chance that AI will be a great thing for the world becomes true. So this is what I would like to share with you. And that is the bad part of AI. I shared initially but I believe at the end of today when mankind sees a common enemy, common threat, until now they always came together. So this time somehow we will manage as the world, this is not a national thing, this is an international thing, we will manage to safeguard mankind from possible threats of AI but only get the goodness out of AI. So in the remaining part of my talk, I will mention a few things about the goodness. I am by nature an optimistic person otherwise you can't be happy or successful. So while keeping an eye on potential threats of something, at the end of the day we should keep ourselves positive and that's who I am. And now mentioning the goodness that's going to come out of AI is first of all there will be great abundance of pretty much anything and if this abundance is treated well, there will be no poverty all around the world. In healthcare, somebody living in a village in Ethiopia will have the same kind of quality operation with someone living in New York from a best doctor because a robot is going to do the operation and it's going to be so inexpensive. So when you think of these things and endless opportunities in education, endless opportunities in chemistry, endless opportunities in even politics, I mean like for example today in politics all politics is representative. We vote either for four years or five years and these people act on our behalf. Do they really act on our behalf? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't all around the world. Whereas now, I mean, we can vote on many things weekly, daily even. It doesn't, it had to be representative before. Does it have to be that much representative now? To some extent, yes. But on minor things, on local things, it doesn't have to be. And we will see the effects of that also. So I expect there's a 90% chance kids born today are going to live in a much, much, much better world with abundance, with more time, having more quality time to themselves, really doing things that they like. Nobody, almost nobody is going to do anything they hate. Okay. And work is going to be optional. So I believe with that abundance and with the right distribution of new policies, right distribution of income that is going to be generated out of that abundance, we can create a world where people have more time for their family, recreation, literature, art, fun and whatever they like to do. And if they still want to work, create something, they will have much more opportunities to do this and do it much faster with the help of AI. So a good future is ahead of us. We just need to be careful not to fall in a trap that AI becomes a monster that we create and I believe the world will find the right solution not to fall in that trap. Now in the remaining part, I like interaction. So you may have some questions about what the future holds in AI, good or bad. And I would like to take some questions.

I'm not a professor. I'm not going to give you any grades. Just shoot anything.

I get that. Thank you. But anyone next doesn't need to thank me. So you thank on all their behalf. Let's use time more wise. Okay. Just shoot the question.

Okay. Yeah, we have a business in New York called Fresh Direct that we own. And so I spent some of my time in New York lately, last two years. And there I let a self-driving car drive me. I'm not driving the car. So this is a Tesla, autonomous Tesla. Unfortunately, it's not allowed to drive in Turkey yet or in Europe. But in US and Canada, it's allowed. So, this is what's taking place in the US as we speak. I took a trip with my wife over the weekend from New York City, let's say from Nishantu in New York City to Abant for a fun trip over the weekend. I never touched the wheel. I never touched the gas pedal. I never touched the brake pedal. I just sat there like this, listened to music. It took me there very safely. This is happening and I use this at this moment. Okay, it is real. So, so many years of autonomous driving, all these projects are at truth now. By law, they don't allow you to sit at the back. But if you get in a cab, Waymo cab in San Francisco, and I've been in one, a couple, you can sit at the back. There's really no driver. In Austin, Texas, robo taxis, no driver you can get in. In Las Vegas, there's another company. No driver, not even a wheel you can get and it drives you. Okay. So this technology is here but it's not widespread. Cities aren't ready yet. Governments aren't ready yet. It's going to take some time. Okay. So with the Turkish situation, the taxi situation, unfortunately, in about 10 to 20 years around the world, I believe there won't be any jobs that is called driving whether that's a taxi driving whether it's a truck driving. And even like in the United States there's 8 million people driving something and making a living out of that. So that's a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. When I said the side effects of AI, this is a good example. So would I like to be driven in a safer car at a third of the cost? In Austin, you can get that ride at a third of the cost compared to Uber. Okay? And there's no driver. So this is going to take over eventually. But then 8 million in US and maybe 200 million people making a living in the world driving something. What are these people going to do? So governments all around the world should find a way that these people don't go hungry or they don't feel bad about this new innovation. And this is not only true with drivers. This is true with all office work. This is true with developers. This is true for many, many other things. So, and I don't see any government really taking the initiative to come up with solid solutions of what to do if so many people are going to be unemployed because of these new technologies. That's the imminent threat actually in the world. So it's a good thing and a bad thing depending on how we manage it in the next 10 years. Okay.

Yes. Yes, there is. Because here's the thing. For example, let's say in a real poor country, you can see people with naked feet. They can't even afford the cheapest shoe. Okay? But let's say in Turkey, we have rich people, middle-income people, and we have poor people. But we rarely see anyone without a shoe or anyone who can't afford a pair of pants or a t-shirt. Okay? Because Turkey is a textile country, mass production of textiles and you can find it very cheap. So it's not a sign of poverty. I mean, even the poorest person can afford a pair of shoes or something to get dressed. That wasn't so in history. Okay. So, abundance, abundance is a word you should familiarize yourself. When it's so abundant, it's a matter of sharing. Okay? So, the cost of almost everything, everything industrial is going to go down so fast. It's going to be so much easier to reach everything and out of that there's going to be so much extra wealth created it can be shared. So the trick here I believe is look before these odd jobs, let's say working, who wants to work in a factory like a line, working in a very noisy environment just doing the same thing, let's say you put something there 5,000 times you do this every day eight hours, do you want to do that? No, you don't want to do that. Okay, nobody's going to do that anymore. Okay, so that job is going to be gone. But that wealth that needs to be created out of that, somebody who owned that factory actually needed that person to do that job. And who would do that job? A person who can't find any other job or who doesn't have enough money. It's out of a must. It's not out of a choice. You guys, when you study here, most probably you're going to be working something of your choice. But most people in the world are not doing something of their choice, rather they do something to continue living their life to make some money to put food on the table. When you can put food on the table without working, that is a given, that is so cheap, so available and you only work for the good stuff. And if you want to, the rich needed, let's say the rich owns the factories. They needed some people to do that. So for the rich to stay rich, some people were needed to do these odd jobs. Now, if you don't need these odd jobs to be fulfilled by people, they're already taken care of. There's no reason you should leave anybody poor. Okay? And the rich can still stay rich. So we will have good income people, very good income people, rich people, extremely rich people. That's the future. Nobody poor. Okay? And it's not going to be a wealth transfer from the very rich to the poor this time. The rich can stay rich, even become richer while the poor also becomes at least comfortable. Before, the rich always had influence on politics. Okay, everywhere. So nobody wanted a wealth transfer. But this time there's an opportunity without a wealth transfer everybody can come out of poverty. That's what I believe.

By the way, you tell me when to stop because I can talk like...

None of these problems are a Turkey problem. Okay. So like when you think AI, don't only think Turkey. All right? So it's going to be, if something is solved in some other country, it's going to be here too. If we solve something, they're going to copy it. They're going to solve it. And the essence of AI is like common knowledge. Everybody's experience is in one mind. Okay? So like with this driving for example, the Tesla, somebody who drives it in a mountainous area in a snowy condition, what that car sees and how it handles is also in the brain of that car. So anything that goes wrong, it doesn't do it again. So like millions of drivers' know-how is in the mind of the car. So, how can I even, if I'm driving for the last 40 years, I can't be as experienced as that Tesla car. Okay? And it's the same thing. Don't think AI problems as local problems. Having said that, I want to say a few things about Turkey and about students who are going to go into work life here. Okay. About Turkey. This new wave of AI is going to change so many things so fast. It is both problematic and it has so many opportunities in it. So Turkey, if we look at Turkey in different categories, like when I was a kid, I'm born in 1962, in the 60s when I was a little kid and in the 70s, in most industries Turkey wasn't a first world power. We couldn't even really manufacture good textiles and textiles manufacturing is not big tech actually. No car was manufactured. The first car was manufactured in the 60s in Turkey. So so many industries evolved and people who had money, if they flew an airline, they would have chosen British Airways or Air France and they didn't choose Turkish Airlines. Today Turkish Airlines is more expensive and a better airline and in tourism with a first world country in life transportation. So in banking, digital services, many, many things, Turkey is, let's say Turkey is a first world country. As a total, are we a first world country in everything we do? Not yet. Hopefully we will get there. So there are some things that I don't want to get into now. But with AI, whatever we're missing and whatever we think will take 50 years to correct is maybe 5, 10 years away. We can reach those things in every area much faster. So the gap between the most developed nations and us can be really shortened so fast if we have the right policies. So this is a big opportunity because in real life, whatever is being done in AI today is this, actually, the foundation is done. Now let me give you an example of mobile technology. Okay, mobile technology came to our lives in mid-1990s. The first phones, they were really big, really expensive and you could only call someone and say hi. And that was it. And then SMS came into our life and then they put internet into it and then you know Apple came with the iPhone idea and made the app store. Okay, that was a big, big thing. And then with that app store and with all these Turkcells, Vodafone, this and that, they just did all this infrastructure. They put the poles and they did the technology and they were able to give us fast enough internet and then after all that is done, I was able to do Getir and somebody else was able to do Uber, somebody else did something else and there are maybe more than 20 million apps in the app store today touching everyone's lives whatever the subject is. But first that infrastructure was laid. The groundwork was done with the poles of Turkcell in 1990s. Without that or the Nokia, the iPhones or whatever phones we had, Ericsson's, you may not remember those brands. Those were the first brands we used. So out of that was built this. So in AI, whatever you see today is the early days of Turkcells and Vodafone and these first phones. The apps aren't there yet. So if we can go forward 10 years from today and look at the services and goods we used in 10 years, 2036. Okay. 99% of the new things we're using that day haven't been created today. So 99% or more of stuff is waiting you guys to create and do the new things that is going to touch people's lives because remember this, think of your mothers and fathers, last two years so much has been done in AI, okay, and every month, every week, every day something new comes out, it becomes faster, it does a better job, this and that. But how did AI touch your mother's life? Let's say your mom is a housewife. How did her life become better? Most probably it didn't. Last two years didn't change much but it's going to change so much in the next 10 years and there are so many opportunities. Although I started my talk with the downside of a potential AI catastrophe, I believe in the good side and the good side is awaiting all of you actually. Yes.

Say that again please.