AI takes center stage at Davos Forum

The artificial intelligence She is, by far, the star of the world’s leaders and business leaders gathered to hear big ideas at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the luxurious resort of Davos. The astonishing advances of generative AI have shocked the world, and today’s elite are looking for ways to harness its insights and minimize its risks.

In a sign of the growing resonance of ChatGPT, the maker of OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman debuted in Davos before the kind of crowds that gather to hear rock stars, with his benefactor, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella , hot on his heels.

AI has a geopolitical importance that surpasses that of almost all previous technologies, as indicated by the fact that world leaders from China to France talked about virtually nothing else, even at receptions after the conferences.

The leadership drama that was the talk of the AI ​​world followed Altman and Nadella to the elegant snows of Switzerland.

Altman, abruptly fired by the OpenAI board and no less abruptly reinstated by the same board, said at an event hosted by Bloomberg that he was dedicated to “install a large directory in full” and later he would study the changes to be introduced in the unusual business structure, governed by a non-profit organization.

He refused to answer any more questions and when someone tried to ask them to the OpenAI executive who was accompanying him, he asked in turn, “Do you really want us to spend time on the soap opera instead of talking about what the AGI is going to do?”

AGI is the acronym for artificial generative intelligence, the technology capable of surpassing human intelligence that OpenAI aspires to create. With that in mind, Altman spoke about technology and humanity in a panel on Thursday.

For his part, Nadella said that “I feel comfortable, I have no problems with the structure whatsoever” of the operating model of OpenAI, the startup in which Microsoft has invested billions of dollars. “I just want good governance and true stability”he said at another Bloomberg event.

Forum founder Klaus Schwab asked Microsoft CEO if he thought the world’s rulers were up to the task of creating regulations for AI, but carefully avoided questions about OpenAI’s governance.

Senior officials from China to Europe presented their positions on AI as the world tries to regulate a rapidly developing technology that has a profound impact on work, elections and private life.

The European Union has moved ahead of the rest of the world by drafting the first set of regulatory rules at the start of a busy electoral year. Lies and disinformation spread through AI are the biggest risk to the global economy with their threat to erode democracy and polarize society, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said that AI is “a double edged sword”.

“Humans must control machines instead of allowing machines to control us,” he said in a speech Tuesday. “AI must be guided in a direction conducive to the progress of humanity, so there must be a limit to the development of AI, a limit that must not be crossed.””, he added, without going into details.

China, one of the world centers of AI development, wants to “improve communication and cooperation with all parties” to improve global AI governance, Li said.

China has issued interim regulations to handle generative AI, but the EU was ahead of everyone with its AI Law, the product of a hard-won political agreement that awaits final sanction.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that AI is “a very significant opportunity if used responsibly”.

“The global race” to develop and adopt it is underway, he said, and praised the law and a program to pair supercomputers with small and medium-sized businesses to train large AI models.