Prince Harry was back in the United States this week for the Clinton Global Initiative. Bill Clinton positions CGI so that it happens concurrent with the opening days of the United Nations General Assembly, since everyone is in New York at the same time. I don’t know if Harry had other business in NYC or around the UN, but my guess is “probably.” Still, his second CGI speech was the biggest public-facing event he’s had in the US in a minute, probably since the Time Magazine Most Influential event? Anyway, Harry’s CGI speech drew a big crowd, but he had teleprompter problems which made him hit pause mid-speech, then leave the stage and return after 40 minutes to finish. He had been talking about the dangers of A.I., then when he returned, he joked that A.I. had gobbled up his speech. From People’s coverage:

Harry’s appearance quickly drew a crowd, PEOPLE observed from inside the event. After his name was announced over a loudspeaker, attendees streamed into the room, which fell silent as the Duke of Sussex took the stage. The crowd settled in and leaned forward, listening intently throughout his remarks.

“But I come to this as a father,” Harry said, “one who has shared countless conversations with other parents as they mourned the loss of their children to recklessly built technology.”

Though he suffered some technical difficulties when his teleprompter cut out near the end of his speech, Harry ultimately returned to the stage after about 40 minutes to deliver his complete remarks. “A.I. got into my speech, so I was asked to come out and finish it,” the prince joked with the crowd. “Interesting to see what it was so concerned about in part two.”

Harry recalled standing on the same stage two years ago to announce the creation of The Parents’ Network, an initiative he and Meghan launched at Archewell after meeting families whose children died by suicide or suffered serious harm following their experiences with social media.

“And as a father, I will remind you of the faces that accompanied me the last time I stood before you,” Harry said, referring to images of children displayed behind him. “Hundreds have become thousands. Thousands of parents grieving their children. Millions of families living with the consequences of a digital revolution that moved faster than our willingness to protect them.”

This time, the Duke of Sussex said there had been signs of progress — but warned against repeating the same mistakes with rapidly developing artificial intelligence.

“Social media learned how to capture our attention. AI is learning how to enter our relationships,” Harry said. “It doesn’t just want your attention, it wants your attachment…. We have spent years trying to loosen technology’s grip on children’s attention. We cannot wait another decade to discover what happens when technology has a grip on their relationships.”

Harry said the lessons of the social media era should inform how emerging technology is approached, calling for greater transparency, choice, standards and accountability and saying that people and young people with lived experience must be at the center of the conversation.

“The good news: we proved pressure works,” Harry said. “The bad news: we proved how long we are willing to wait. Technology and the humans in charge of it are going to promise us the world. They must be accountable for the world they actually deliver. Two years ago, I brought these faces here as a warning. I do not want to return with more. So this time, let’s move first.”

[From People]

I skimmed the coverage of other CGI speakers, and it looks like AI was a huge subject for many of them. I’m glad Harry namechecked AI chatbots, because I agree, they are already a problem and will likely be a problem for years to come. I’m including the (partial) video below, from CSPAN. Incidentally, as I looked around for an unedited video of his speech, I saw that several major American and British newspapers covered his speech via livestream, and there were already dozens of unhinged royalist commentary videos up as well. The good news, I suppose, is that Harry is still such a heatscore that he has so many people obsessing over what was a pretty dry, conservative speech about social media and AI.

On Tuesday, someone got a video of Harry walking down the street in NYC with a couple of private security peeps. Derangers are mocking this because… people weren’t lined up, waiting to see him? Like, he was clearly just walking from one meeting to the next, no one had any warning. Speaking of, here’s a true story: tumbleweeds rolled past King Charles and Camilla during their visit to New York earlier this year. NO ONE came out for them.

SPOTTED: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex is seen walking through the streets of New York City. pic.twitter.com/nbi6cKw51I

— Cristina Corujo (@cristina_corujo) September 22, 2026

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and IMAGO/Katie Godowski/Avalon.