A perspective on Davos 2024: AI and elections take center stage
Last week, I traveled to Davos, Switzerland to participate in meetings on the margin of the World Economic Forum in my role as founder and CEO of Panorama. While the Forum is held in the Congress Centre, which is heavily guarded and with strict security access, the rest of the village is transformed into meeting and event venues, and the events I attended were in the Davos hotels and in storefronts that are converted into corporate or country offices for the week.
It is hard to summarize Davos, both because so much happens, and because your perspective on what happens is biased by which events you attend and who you talk to. However, I think it is safe to say that artificial intelligence was the major topic of the year, and it seemed like almost every session name had AI added into the title.
Social impact issues are very much on the periphery of Davos, to the extent that Politico had to publish a specific piece just on the people working on these issues who were in attendance: Davos Do-Gooders.
Politico also reported that many felt there was less of a focus on climate this year (due to the proximity in time of the Dubai COP). And even if there was less focus, climate was certainly threaded through most discussions. Despite that, Devex quoted Bill Gates as saying he is “jealous” of all the attention that climate gets through the COP, “and he worries that progress on global health risks sliding backward as donors increasingly train their funding on the environment.”
Another topic referenced throughout the week is that 2024 is the year of elections: Seven of the world’s 10 biggest countries will hold elections, including India, the U.S., Indonesia, and Pakistan. There were regular mentions of the rise of right-wing governments and the crisis in the Middle East.
These trends are important for some of my priority issues: Getting more women elected and protecting individuals from online violence. The energy around these topics was promising for making progress on both fronts in the year ahead.
There were visual references to events taking place outside of the idyllic mountain village: The Ukraine building had a tracker since the start of the war; Wall Street Journal’s standard banner across a major hotel added #IStandWithEvan, in reference to Evan Gershkovitz, the U.S. journalist being held in Russia. And the Palantir office had a photo montage of Israeli hostages, saying Free Them Now.
Something to look for each year is who rents storefronts. Saudi Arabia and India had an enormous presence, with Neom, Saudi’s “city of the future,” taking up about six stores. UAE has a major presence; this was the first year Colombia had a storefront. On the corporate front, the usual suspects had a large presence (all the huge tech companies, accounting firms, and insurance companies). However, Zoom, which had a nice set-up last year, didn’t make the same showing this year.
What’s also notable is what’s not on the agenda. The World Economic Forum puts out an annual risks report, and this year’s version had no reference to pandemics. It is concerning that not only has the world moved on without looking back, but there is also little interest in discussing the increased chance of disease outbreaks as the climate changes.
Over the past few years, there have been a proliferation of women’s receptions, dinners, events, and the fantastic Equality Lounge, hosted by The Female Quotient. The energy and enthusiasm around these activities mask the fact that the number of World Economic Forum delegates who were women usually hovers around 20%, and that when walking by many of the corporate tech hubs lining the streets of Davos, the only people visible through the windows are men.
Regardless, Davos provides the opportunity to see long-time colleagues who have become friends; to connect with individuals you know so many people in common with you can’t believe you’ve never met before, and to meet people you would normally not have the chance to. It is a friendly vibe and would be great if more people had the opportunity to experience Davos.
A full circle moment
A personal highlight of the week for me was at the IMAGINE Leaders and Financial Times Moral Money event, which featured former Vice President Al Gore as the speaker.
Gore talked about well-financed, ruthless opponents of climate change: large financial fuel companies and petro states. These forces funded an ad campaign to try to convince Americans that it’s not possible to transition away from fossil fuels.
He described that we are in an “epistemological crisis — society can no longer determine what is real.” Therefore, it’s imperative for grassroots activists to lead the way.
He concluded by saying: “Take heart, be of good cheer — history is replete with morally-based movements that rise to the challenge. We take inspiration from the chains of leaders in the past who got us to where we are today.”
Valerie Keller, founder of IMAGINE Leaders, thanked him for his speech and said, “I would like to call the IMAGINE leaders on stage. They are an inspirational group of leaders [who] are linking the chain of the past to the future we want tomorrow.”
I had participated in the initial IMAGINE Leaders workshop in September 2022, so I joined the other leaders on stage. It was a special “full circle” moment, given that I started my career in The White House working for President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
I am so impressed that leaders like Al Gore, who have spent decades working on climate, can still have so much optimism on such a challenging issue. Likewise, conservationist Jane Goodall was also inspiring on the imperative to continue pressing ahead to fight back against climate change: “Together we can. Together we will. Together we must.”
