AI — The Lady in Red in Davos 2024

It`s an annual tradition to share my takeaways from Davos every January. The temperature outside was below zero but inside, everywhere, energies were swirling, and temperatures were high.

By now, you all know that Davos this year was transformed into AI-land.

If Deus ex machina were to choose somewhere to make an impactful appearance, most probably it would be Davos during the WEF.

Its 2024 appearance would be in red with AI initials.

Not to honor Aeschylus who introduced the idea (ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós) in Greek — ‘god from the machine`) in Greek tragedies to resolve conflicts and conclude the drama.

There is no other place other than Davos with such a high concentration of actors playing Gods needing a machine to be brought on stage to resolve all dramas, conflicts, and large-scale unresolved issues.

Perspectives from the shows I attended in Davos

For all of us who are not amongst the actors playing Gods, the events in Davos offer an amazing opportunity to attend and participate in a variety of diverse events on any and every topic you can imagine.

5 notable hand-picked AI distinctions

1. We are all AI-immigrants. Don’t pretend to be an AI-native!
2. In business, AI is an abused term. 90% of what is referred to as AI is just business intelligence and low-level automation. Of the remaining 10%, 80% is GenAI, according to AxonJay.ai and only 20% of enterprises are currently deploying GenAI tools.
3. GenAI is what has spurred all the excitement around the Lady in Red — AI. According to QUALCOMM, 80% of enterprises have no idea how to vet and deploy AI tools within their businesses.
4. We are currently, in the IA — Intelligent Augmentation — era, according to A21Labs.
5. On-device AI will be the next big frontier.

Our Future — Hand-picked from Scientist`s Speeches

1. Future of Work: Erik Brynjolfsson, professor and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, shared research on a taxonomy of tasks they have been working on. With the help of NLP, they have classified 200,000 tasks from job listings and estimate that 40% of them will be augmented by the recent AI developments.
2. Future of the Internet: Decentralization sadly was displaced by a focus on Neural Networks (small or large, task-specific or not, biomimicry of animals or human intuition, with or without lineage). Maybe it is too early, but we need to create infrastructure that is not controlled by one entity, for AI agents to communicate and transact. Only SingularityNet (founder Ben Goertzel) and HyperCycleAI (Toufi Saliba) are working on this (to my knowledge).
3. Future without Jobs: Max Tegmark, MIT physicist, Machine Learning researcher, and author (best known for his book `Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence), spoke about our quest to control AI. I was mesmerized by his talk. `What is the future we are steering to? If we can have it all (Income, Purpose, Friends), we don’t need jobs, so don’t live in fear of being unable to control AGI`. [1]
4. `Frustrated` Futurists: Kai Fu-Lee admitted at a panel I attended at the GoalsHouse in Davos on the topic of `Investing in our Digital Future`, that he should have gone wilder with his predictions in his book AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future (co-authored with Chen Qiufan).

5 Ironic Realities to keep in mind

1. Gender equality has always had a strong presence in Davos. From the Female Quotient, WORLD WOMAN DAVOS AGENDA, to the 100 Davos Women Association. Sandy Carter`s coverage of women`s presence in Davos in her Forbes piece ` Women Rock N Roll Davos With AI, Health, And Inclusive Leadership` is comprehensive and a highly recommended read.

We women continue to claim our seats at the decision-making tables/rooms!

a. Six major Gaps to close according to FQ:

I. Bias Gap

II. Care Gap

III. Leadership Gap

IV. Pay Gap

V. Procurement Gap

VI. Workforce Gap

b. The 4 Es!!

I. Equal Pay

II. Equal representation

III. Equal parental leave

IV. Equal empathy

From Hanna Birna Kristjansdottir`s talk during the annual 100 Davos Women Association dinner. Hanna is the Chair and Co-founder, Reykjavik Global Forum & Senior Advisor on Women’s Leadership for UN Women. She has held various positions in Icelandic politics, including Minister of the Interior, Parliament member, and Mayor of Reykjavik.

2. The 17 SDGs were screaming out loud to the Lady in Red who drew all the attention:

‘We don’t need AGI, to meet the SDG goals. Drop all this AI obsession and AGI fears, and lets get our HOUSE in order. Peace is profitable. War destroys nature. We are part of it.`

Jo Godall`s message to WEF leader says it all — 3min listen

3. Startup founders echoed that AI-washing is real in fundraising and resembles 2017 when capital would ask founders `Can’t you put it on the blockchain?`😉

4. I couldn’t find one soul that believed we will move towards harmonization of regulatory differences across jurisdictions, on anything (e.g. Securities laws or AI).

5. There was an unspoken consensus that the US will remain behind with regard to favorable regulations in Tokenization. Beware of this limitation because Tokenization won`t only transform financial markets (which like or not, there is a clear US dominance because of institutional dominance). Tokenization will go beyond financial markets and will also transform Energy markets, Space, Natural Resources, Supply Chains, Logistics, etc.

Closing

Actors playing Gods will continue to determine the short- and medium-term trends of the way we live, work, and communicate. Some actors may replace others.

We hope there will be more Women on these stages (that you and I don’t get to play) and we hope that the bottom-up pressure from the younger generation and the disruptive leading minds will contribute towards a Utopian world (better for the collective) and not a Dystopian one.

Every voice counts. Everybody`s energy counts. We are a collective. We impact each other.

One last remark that I want to leave you with which has geopolitical first but not only importance, is that in Davos this year, India was omnipresent. I have been attending Davos meetings during the WEF since 2017 and I felt this year, the country`s presence (Men & Women) had doubled-up. We need a world with stronger voices. India has shown the world the value of Digital Public Infrastructures. India has a large, educated population. India is the top trading partner to more than 100 countries globally.

Diversity and Balance are desirable for our world.

Spiritual leaders also convened in Davos, this year too. I took the time to participate in a 1-hour meditation walk. It was the best recharge, ever. We need more collaborative alliances with spiritual leaders, philosophers, scientists, entrepreneurs, the corporate world, and politicians. We don’t need AI`s help to make that happen.

The Lady in Red is seducing the world right now. Stay awake. We are AI- immigrants.

[1] This is not a quote from Max Tegmark but an account from my own notes.

📌 Twitter: https://twitter.com/efipm

📌 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel with my insights and industry leader interviews. New video every Wednesday: https://www.youtube.com/EfiPylarinou

📌 Apple Podcast 👉 https://buff.ly/3P1Cp1Z

📌 Spotify Podcast 👉 https://buff.ly/3xPyWaV

📌 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efipylarinou/

📌 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@efiglobal

📌 Web: https://efipylarinou.com/