Helping Cities Lead in the Evolving Era of Artificial Intelligence | Bloomberg CityLab 2026

📅 May 31, 2026 Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mike Bloomberg 8 MIN 173 VIEWS 12 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS

Bloomberg Philanthropies is launching the Mayors’ AI Forum to help cities lead in the rapidly evolving era of artificial intelligence. The founding cohort — Bogotá, Boston, Buenos Aires, Kyiv, London, Madrid, Nairobi, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Tokyo — will work with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University to explore how AI can strengthen city services and improve policymaking. “Nobody knows what the future holds, but the better prepared cities are, the better they can seize opportunities or avoid dangers,” said Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Mike Bl...

What Michael Bloomberg said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Michael Bloomberg announced the launch of the Mayors AI Forum, a new initiative by Bloomberg Philanthropies, at the Bloomberg CityLab 2026 conference. He said the forum will help cities collaborate on AI, ensure private sector companies understand urban issues, and inform government AI policies. Bloomberg named 10 founding cities: Bogota, Boston, Buenos Aires, Kiev, London, Madrid, Nairobi, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Tokyo. He said these cities are centers of innovation and have mayors committed to seizing AI opportunities. The forum will be supported by the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University. Bloomberg introduced London Mayor Sadiq Khan, praising his leadership on climate change, air pollution, and economic growth. Khan then spoke, advocating for 'AI realism' and announcing London's AI and Jobs Task Force and free AI training for all Londoners.

Key takeaways

Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Mayors AI Forum with 10 founding cities: Bogota, Boston, Buenos Aires, Kiev, London, Madrid, Nairobi, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
The forum will be supported by the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a new London AI and Jobs Task Force to monitor AI's impact on jobs and map the future of work.
Khan said London is offering all Londoners free AI training to help them upskill.
Khan advocated for 'AI realism,' rejecting both uncritical optimism and fear-driven pessimism about AI.

Numbers and commitments

Figure	What it refers to	Type	At
10	founding cities in the Mayors AI Forum	metric	1:05

Chapters

0:00Announcement of Mayors AI Forum
1:05Founding cities and their role
2:05Support from Johns Hopkins and Bloomberg network
2:44Introduction of London Mayor Sadiq Khan
3:56Khan's tribute and AI realism
6:14London's AI initiatives and task force
8:09Call for collective action on AI

Narrator 0:00 ↗

Bloomberg Philanthropies is launching a new initiative today. It is called the Mayors AI Forum. This network will ensure we're shaping how AI is developed and deployed rather than allowing it to shape us. We know our cities are uniquely equipped to perform the role.

2 more exchanges in this transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX

APA

Bloomberg, M. (2026, May 31). Helping Cities Lead in the Evolving Era of Artificial Intelligence | Bloomberg CityLab 2026 [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mike Bloomberg. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/997181/

MLA

Michael Bloomberg. "Helping Cities Lead in the Evolving Era of Artificial Intelligence | Bloomberg CityLab 2026." Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mike Bloomberg, 31 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/997181/.

BibTeX

@misc{bloomberg2026_997181,
  author       = {Michael Bloomberg},
  title        = {Helping Cities Lead in the Evolving Era of Artificial Intelligence | Bloomberg CityLab 2026},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mike Bloomberg. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {may},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/997181/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}

▶

Key Quotes (2)

“AI holds so much promise to help municipalities improve the quality of services and access to them and we thought it would be a good opportunity to let you see what's going on elsewhere. AI also presents many challenges that will be felt at the city level including changes to the challenges and changes to the job market. I think it's fair to say nobody knows what the future holds but the better pr”

▶ 0:32 POLICY

“The initiatives that we're about to start will help mayors collaborate and amplify their voices. It will help ensure that private sector companies understand the issues facing cities as they develop AI products and it'll help governments at all levels of the understand those issues as they develop AI policies.”

▶ 2:05 POLICY

Mentioned in this interview

Sadiq Khan: Mayor of London, praised by Bloomberg and spoke at the event

London: One of the founding cities, with AI initiatives announced

Earlier, on the same topics

“The Mayors AI Forum will be supported by the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University. It will benefit from experts and world-class advisers from across the Bloomberg Philanthropies network. And I'm glad to say that one of the people helping to launch this initiative is”

climate change · Apr 29, 2026 at 20:52 →

“Today, I'm glad to announce that we're making a new investment of $168 million to help speed up progress that local leaders are making in the fight against climate change.”

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Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, opened the 2026 Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, where he welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and described India's economic growth, citing its status as the world's fastest-growing economy and its investments in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and clean energy. He also noted the company's 30 years of operations in India and its philanthropic work in the country, including initiatives in public health, road safety, and solar power. In September 2026, Bloomberg spoke at several events during the UN General Assembly, including a climate summit where he highlighted that over 90% of new power installations globally came from clean energy in the past year, while cautioning that climate risks remain severe. He also co-hosted a global call to action on ending lead poisoning, calling it a preventable "silent epidemic" affecting more than one in three children worldwide. Earlier, he paid tribute to Baltimore community leader Joni Holifield, announcing that a community center space in the new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health building would be named in her honor. In an interview with AXA, he discussed his leadership principles, including his preference for open offices and his view that AI will change work but not replace the need for adaptable, motivated employees.

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