The Big Disrupters

Videos featuring President George W. Bush; Bono, Lead Singer of U2 and Co-Founder of ONE and Red; Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos; and D. Scott Phoenix, Co-founder of Vicarious

Three videos from the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s April Forum on Leadership highlight that we can overcome disruptive forces.

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos with Bush Center CEO Kenneth Hersh at the Bush Center's Forum on Leadership, April 20, 2018. (Grant Miller / George W. Bush Presidential Center)

Fierce partisanship limits us from solving large public problems. America needs a stronger math and science base to keep driving economic innovations. And China is racing to surpass us in developing the newest of technologies: artificial intelligence (AI). These are three of the most powerful disruptive forces here and around the world.

Yet we need not recoil. 


President Bush joins U2 lead singer Bono to discuss how they overcame their political differences to launch a massive campaign 15 years ago to combat the spread of AIDS across Africa. Their shared commitment continues through initiatives like the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief and the One campaign.


Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos explains his passion for and investment in space exploration. His goal is to create reusable rocket vehicles so we can lower the cost of access to space, which he believes opens up unlimited resources for supporting our civilization.


Vicarious Co-founder D. Scott Phoenix describes how artificial intelligence (AI) can make robots work more like humans. He believes the next generation of AI will reshape how the world works, just like the printing press, the wheel, and the telephone improved society.