Davos, 19 Jan

Artificial intelligence is easily the biggest buzzword for world leaders and corporate bosses diving into big ideas at the World Economic Forum’s glitzy annual meeting in Davos. Breathtaking advances in generative AI stunned the world last year, and the elite crowd is angling to take advantage of its promise and minimize its risks.

In a sign of ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s skyrocketing profile, CEO Sam Altman made his Davos debut to rock star crowds, with his benefactor, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, hot on his heels.

Illustrating AI’s geopolitical importance like few other technologies before it, the word was on the lips of world leaders from China to France. It was visible across the Swiss Alpine town and percolated through afterparties.

OPENAI OPENING BIG AT DAVOS

The leadership drama at the AI world’s much-ballyhooed chatbot maker followed Altman and Nadella to the swanky Swiss snows.

Altman’s sudden firing and swift rehiring last year cemented his position as the face of the generative AI revolution but questions about the boardroom bustup and OpenAI’s governance lingered. He told a Bloomberg interviewer that he’s focused on getting a “great full board in place” and deflected further questions.

At a Davos panel on technology and humanity Thursday, a question about what Altman learned from the upheaval came at the end.

“We had known that our board had gotten too small, and we knew that we didn’t have a level of experience we needed,” Altman said. “But last year was such a wild year for us in so many ways that we sort of just neglected it.”

Altman added that for “every one step we take closer to very powerful AI, everybody’s character gets, like, plus 10 crazy points. It’s a very stressful thing. And it should be because we’re trying to be responsible about very high stakes.”

WORLD LEADERS WANT TO LEAD THE WORLD ON AI

From China to Europe, top officials staked their positions on AI as the world grapples with regulating the rapidly developing technology that has big implications for workplaces, elections and privacy.

The European Union has devised the world’s first comprehensive AI rules ahead of a busy election year, with AI-powered misinformation and disinformation the biggest risk to the global economy as it threatens to erode democracy and polarize society, according to a World Economic Forum report released last week.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang called AI “a double-edged sword.”

“Human beings must control the machines instead of having the machines control us,” he said in a speech Tuesday.

“AI must be guided in a direction that is conducive to the progress of humanity, so there should be a redline in AI development — a red line that must not be crossed,” Li said, without elaborating.

China, one of the world’s centers of AI development, wants to “step up communication and cooperation with all parties” on improving global AI governance, Li said.

China has released interim regulations for managing generative AI, but the EU broke ground with its AI Act, which won a hard-fought political deal last month and awaits final sign-off.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said AI is “a very significant opportunity, if used in a responsible way.”

She said “the global race is already on” to develop and adopt AI, and touted the 27-nation EU’s efforts, including the AI Act and a program pairing supercomputers with small and midsized businesses to train large AI models.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he’s a “strong believer” in AI and that his country is “an attractive and competitive country” for the industry. He played up France’s role in helping coordinate regulation on deepfake images and videos created with AI as well as plans to host a follow-up summit on AI safety after an inaugural gathering in Britain in November.

The letters “AI” were omnipresent along the Davos Promenade, where consulting firms and tech giants are among the groups that swoop onto the main drag each year, renting out shops and revamping them into showcase pavilions.