Wars and Artificial Intelligence should dominate debates in Davos

World Economic Forum begins this Monday in Switzerland, putting on the agenda conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and disinformation generated by AI. Climate change and global debt should also have space on the panels. The rich and powerful from around the world are descending on the idyllic resort town of Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.

In 2024, the annual event comes at a time when the world is witnessing devastating wars in Gaza and Ukraine, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) – which cause both excitement and concern – a debt crisis amid an economic slowdown and a deterioration in the health of the planet.

More than 2,800 participants are expected to attend the five-day event that begins this Monday (15/01). Among them are more than 60 heads of state and government – ​​President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is not expected to travel to Davos this year, just as he did not do so in 2023. The slogan of the meeting of global political and business leaders, celebrities and activists prominent social media will be “Rebuilding Trust”.

“The theme is a direct response to the erosion of trust that is evident in societies and between nations,” explained the Forum's managing director, Mirek Dusek, during a press conference.

According to him, some can link the fissures directly to “profound transformations around us, whether geopolitical, geoeconomic or related to climate and nature”.

Gaza and Ukraine at the top of the agenda

Among the main political leaders participating will be French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang. The newly inaugurated president of Argentina, Javier Milei, is also expected to attend.

The US will be represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will be joined by, among others, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to discuss ways to end the conflict. in Gaza and avoid further escalation, as many fear.

The war in Ukraine is also expected to feature prominently this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend the meeting in person, aiming to drum up support for his country as key allies the US and European Union (EU) struggle to release billions in crucial aid for Kiev.

Economic malaise

Slow economic growth and the persistent cost of living crisis amid higher interest rates are hitting people around the world hard. The World Bank recently warned that the global economy is on track to end 2024 with half of the decade with the slowest GDP growth in 30 years.

While global recession fears have eased thanks to robust growth in the US, there are concerns that rising geopolitical tensions could derail the recovery. The slowdown in China, the world's second-largest economy, has also clouded the prospects of many developing countries in Africa and Asia.

Another issue likely to dominate the agenda is the colossal levels of debt that developing economies, many of them in Africa, have accumulated in recent years to deal with various crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, energy shortages and climate change. .

Currently, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education or health, according to the UN. Many developing countries are seeing their financial coffers come under stress amid high food and energy costs and higher borrowing costs.

The state of the economy and the debt crisis will be high on the agenda of African leaders, who are expected in large numbers, led by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto.

Leonard Stiegeler, member of the “Africa Collective”, a platform that promotes African interests with global investors, explains that, as for Africa, “it continues to be about building confidence in the continent as a vibrant center of current and future opportunities, especially, considering the size of its population”.

“In addition to the creation of jobs and qualified labor. Africa is a place to be reckoned with, and this is something African leaders must promote,” she highlighted.

AI: a fundamental topic

The boom in artificial intelligence, which creates both opportunities and headaches for regulators, is one of this year's main topics, with a series of panels dedicated to the technological revolution.

An annual risk survey published by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday placed AI-driven misinformation as the biggest danger over the next two years.

The survey said “the relationship between false information and social unrest will take center stage” this year when major economies such as the US, EU and India go to the polls.

“We would like to be positively paranoid about new technologies and other cutting-edge issues,” Dusek said. “And establish public-private dialogue and cooperation around these issues now, so that we don’t end up falling behind, as some would say the world is doing when it comes to generative AI.”