Iran Government-Led Rally Sends Defiant Message to U.S.; How to Reset the AI Doomsday Clock

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Here's the Scoop 27 min 5 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 5 hours ago
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Why did the Iranian government organize a massive rally in Tehran and what does it signal to the U.S. and Israel?

India McTaggart 0:00
So now it's become a real war of words between the palace and between the king's former brother-in-law.
Yasmin Basu 0:08
Hi, everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Bissougin. So today on the show, we are talking about a book written by Princess Diana's brother coming out on Tuesday. And there are a lot of very intense accusations in this book. some of which surround the time in which Princess Diana actually died. So we're gonna get into that along with how Buckingham Palace is responding because they are actually in fact responding. We are also talking about artificial intelligence. So the conversation has been ongoing for the last few weeks or so, right? This doomsday mentality that AI could end humanity in the next decade or so potentially, right? And the solution to that not happening is AI regulation.
Yasmin Basu 0:56
But how does one regulate AI? How does a country regulate AI? Will it stop it or have we already gone too far? We're going to get all those questions answered as
Kate Snow 1:07
well.
Yasmin Basu 1:11
Up first, though, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Friday. They were marching through downtown Tehran in combat uniforms, carrying flags and pledging their readiness to take up arms. The rallies, they were organized by the Iranian government. And they are some of the largest demonstrations since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran back in February. And they're meant to show the world that Iran is still unified, despite an economy that is struggling in the face of the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and and sanctions as well. So why is this happening now? And are these rallies an accurate representation of the feelings on the ground amongst Iranians? For this, I want to bring in NBC News international editor, Balbak Dehran-Pichet.
Yasmin Basu 2:01
Hi, Balbak.
Babak Dehghanpisheh 2:02
Hi. Thanks for having me on.
Yasmin Basu 2:03
Great to have you back. Let's start first with these rallies. I mentioned how they are organized by the Iranian government. Who's attending and what do they actually involve? What are they trying to project to the world in holding these rallies?
Babak Dehghanpisheh 2:19
This is part of a military mobilization campaign that started going back to March. The government wanted to project strength, so they started this out with nightly rallies held in Tehran and a number of other cities to kind of bring supporters. And they have set up a website, they've set up registration booths and so on, essentially saying that these are people, if there were to be some kind of change, military ground assault, you know, from the U.S., from Israel, that they would be prepared, that these people, in addition to Iran's own military regular forces, that these are volunteers who would be there to support the regime. This display, this rally today was the first sort of manifestation of this movement in the streets.
Babak Dehghanpisheh 3:05
So these are Essentially, what the government is claiming are volunteers. They were armed. There are people with AK-47s. The government had drones on display, the drones that have been used to attack regional countries in recent weeks, the drones that have been used to attack oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

Who are the volunteers marching in the Tehran rally and what messages are they trying to send domestically and internationally?

Babak Dehghanpisheh 3:22
And in terms of the timing, it appears that it could be partly tied to comments that President Trump has made. I He said in an interview that he could choose to annihilate Iran or the Iranian regime. So this could be a show of strength, partly related to comments like that. But also we've got the United Nations General Assembly coming up next week. So this could also be a projection of strength leading up to that.
Yasmin Basu 3:50
So then the question is, who is this to the benefit for? Is it a domestic audience? Is it an international audience? Is it both? And I ask this because there was some video coming out of these protests, and the music that is actually playing in the background of these protests is English. I got to tell you, I have been, Bobak, I'm laughing because I have covered a lot of protests inside Iran, and I have never, ever heard English music in the background.
Babak Dehghanpisheh 4:22
Yeah, I mean, the same. I mean, I've been to pro-government rallies in Iran. Don't recall hearing any catchy English songs.

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