Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) – There is a buzzword at the annual meeting of the world’s elites in the Swiss luxury resort of Davos: tariffs, although artificial intelligence has been another big theme. For the World Trade Organization chief, it’s time cooler heads prevailed as she warned against tit-for-tat tariffs. That might be easier said than done for the countries that could be in line for US tariffs after US President Donald Trump indicated he could deliver on his many threats.
Here is what happened so far at the forum on Thursday:
– **Keep calm and trade on** – WTO head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala appeared to have reached a point of exasperation amid the panic of what might happen if the United States unleashes painful duties. “Please let’s not hyperventilate. I know we are here to discuss tariffs. I’ve been saying to everybody: could we chill, also? I just sense a lot of hyperventilation,” she told a panel called “debating tariffs.” “Even if a tariff is levied, please keep calm, don’t wake up and without the necessary groundwork levy your own,” she said. Her remarks come after expectations that if Trump slaps higher levies, countries will respond with tit-for-tat actions of their own.
– **Musk’s ‘innocent’ salute** – One of this year’s stars at Davos has been Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, who delivered another bombastic speech after his first at last year’s WEF. This time, Milei defended tech billionaire Elon Musk after he caused a stir this week by making hand gestures at an inauguration event for US President Donald Trump. Milei said his “dear friend Musk” has been “unfairly vilified by wokeism in recent hours for an innocent gesture that only means…his gratitude to the people.”
– **Pope’s AI warning** – There may be a lot of hype about AI and what more it can do for businesses and people, but Pope Francis had a warning: be vigilant, especially over the lies it tells. The pope is familiar with AI and its risks of deepfakes. In 2023, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket went viral. “The results that AI can produce are almost indistinguishable from those of human beings, raising questions about its effect on the growing crisis of truth in the public forum,” he said in a written address to the WEF.
– **AI ‘better than humans by 2027’** – But AI enthusiasts were abound in Davos, including Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, who expects artificial intelligence systems to perform tasks better than humans soon. “It is my guess that by 2026 or 2027, we will have AI systems that are broadly better than almost all humans at almost all things,” Amodei said.
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