Who mentioned what on the World Financial Discussion board (WEF)

The potential for generative synthetic intelligence, when rates of interest could be reduce, and the continuing wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip had been key subjects on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

Enterprise and political leaders additionally mentioned world commerce, local weather change and what would possibly occur if former President Donald Trump returns to the White Home this 12 months.

Here is a rundown of who mentioned what.

An more and more remoted Russia now depends on China for each its army and financial ends, the European Fee’s President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday.

“Russia is now dependent on China,” she mentioned throughout an tackle at WEF, including that Russia is failing on its strategic objectives.

“It is first and foremost a military failure,” she mentioned, noting that Ukraine had up to now retained its “freedom and independence” in its virtually two-year warfare with Moscow.

Bitcoin does nothing, in line with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. “I call it the pet rock,” he informed CNBC on the sidelines of WEF in Davos.

“There’s a cryptocurrency which might actually do something,” Dimon mentioned of sensible chain-enriched blockchains. “And then there’s one which does nothing.“

When requested what he manufactured from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s change of coronary heart on bitcoin — after the world’s largest asset supervisor filed an application for a bitcoin ETF — Dimon mentioned, “I don’t care. So just please stop talking about this s***.”

Dimon additionally spoke about Ukraine’s warfare with Russia following a gathering with its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We have to teach the American public that this is about freedom and democracy for the free world, and that’s where the battle is being fought,” he mentioned. “This is ‘America first’.”

“One man has stolen at least 13 years of peace, replacing them with pain, pain, pain and crisis that impact the entire world,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed delegates in a keynote speech in Davos on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “embodies war,” Zelenskyy mentioned, including: “he will not change.”

Throughout his tackle, he additionally decried the failure of Western allies to sanction Russia’s nuclear business. “It’s a clear weakness of the West that Russia’s nuclear industry is still not under global sanctions, even though Putin is the only terrorist in the world who took a nuclear power plant hostage,” Zelenskyy mentioned.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” called on enterprise and political leaders at Davos to reject socialism.

“Today, I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger,” Milei mentioned Wednesday, in line with a translation.

“And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and thereby to poverty,” he added.

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman mentioned she believes the Federal Reserve must be cautious of slicing rates of interest too quickly. 

Speaking at a CNBC-moderated panel at WEF, Friedman mentioned Tuesday that whereas “there are a lot of signals that would say that there should be rate [cuts] as we go through the year, the question is when they would start. And if I were the Fed, I would be a little concerned about starting too early.”

She defined that whereas inflation was heading within the “right direction of travel,” the Fed would additionally anticipate this to reasonable, making it more durable to convey charges down.

OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman spoke concerning the potential for artificial general intelligence (AGI), saying: “It will change the world much less than we all think and it will change jobs much less than we all think.”

He mentioned AGI may very well be developed within the “reasonably close-ish future,” talking at a non-public gathering on the Bloomberg Home in Davos, Switzerland.

Altman additionally described being fired from OpenAI as “wild,” saying he felt “super confused” and was “super caught off guard.”

Considerations over AI security and OpenAI’s position in defending had been on the middle of Altman’s brief ouster from the corporate.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde mentioned she expects this 12 months to be considered one of financial “non-normality,” after seeing the “beginning of normalization” in 2023.

Talking on a panel on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, she mentioned consumption, commerce and inflation started to normalize final 12 months, after a post-pandemic interval that she described as “strange, extraordinary and difficult to analyze.”

The pandemic lowered shopper spending that means individuals had extra financial savings, whereas world commerce was additionally disrupted. In October 2022, euro zone inflation reached 10.6% however dropped off in 2023, rising once more to 2.9% in December.

Whereas these tendencies symbolize a “normalization,” Lagarde added that “it is not normality that we are heading to.”

French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned Wednesday that Europe should be more assertive on the world stage forward of the U.S. elections this 12 months.

“2024 will be a pivotal year for Europeans. We must prove that we can be more visible, make more efforts, whatever happens in the United States,” he mentioned, in line with a translation.

Macron additionally expressed considerations about what the election might imply for U.S.-China tensions.

“The great risk for Europeans is that they would end up with the wrong agenda,” he mentioned.

Ukraine’s International Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC Thursday that he doesn’t assume there can be an enormous shift in assist away from his nation if Trump is re-elected later this 12 months.

“So do I believe there is a potential for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Trump to agree on something behind Ukraine’s back if Trump becomes president? I don’t,” he mentioned.

Kuleba additionally mentioned the environment in Davos was constructive. “People are looking for solutions instead of endlessly discussing problems,” he mentioned.

Yeoh mentioned she desires to lift consciousness of points which have traditionally had much less consideration world wide, and is campaigning towards reckless driving, noting that 1.3 million people are killed on roads yearly.

“Especially in the third world, because if the bread winner gets into a crash, if he’s incapacitated or worse if he or she dies, that family has no way to come out of poverty,” she mentioned.

The rise of far-right political groups is the “biggest concern” for Western democracies, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez informed CNBC.

“I think that not only the [political] fragmentation, but the advance of the far-right, it is something … I would say [it is] the biggest concern for Western democracies,” he mentioned Wednesday.

Forward of European Parliament elections this 12 months, Sanchez mentioned that having extra progressive or middle seats than far-right seats can be “easier for all of us, the Commission, the Council and of course, the European Parliament.”

Chinese language Premier Li Qiang referred to as for larger “cooperation in innovation,” during an address to the World Financial Discussion board on Tuesday.

“Scientific and technological fruits should benefit humanity as a whole, instead of becoming a means to restrict or contain the development of other countries,” he mentioned, in line with an official translation of his remarks.

Li didn’t identify nations in his speech, however Beijing has repeatedly requested Washington to take away restrictions on Chinese language firms that stop them from shopping for superior know-how from U.S. corporations.

Li mentioned the Chinese language economic system grew by round 5.2% in 2023. “In promoting economic development, we did not resort to massive stimulus. We did not seek short-term growth while accumulating long-term risks,” he added.

He mentioned that U.S. assist of Israel was the “root of insecurity in the region.”

“The U.S. should not, Mr. [Joe] Biden should not tie their destiny to the fate of Netanyahu,” Amir-Abdollahian informed CNBC Tuesday.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti mentioned returning to move up the financial institution final 12 months was “quite a surreal experience,” having been within the position for 9 years between 2011 and 2020.

Discussing the financial institution’s acquisition of Credit score Suisse in March 2023, Ermotti mentioned that shoppers and staff “were quite shocked in the first round, and now they embrace the new model.”

Ermotti described the interval since he took over as “pretty good.”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff mentioned the tech business is working to make sure synthetic intelligence is developed safely sufficient to be sure that the world avoids a “Hiroshima moment.”

“This is a huge moment for AI. AI took a huge leap forward in the last year or two years,” Benioff mentioned on a World Financial Discussion board panel Thursday.

“We don’t want something to go really wrong,” he mentioned.

Investor Ray Dalio mentioned that 2024 can be a “pivotal year” with the U.S. presidential election and geopolitical occasions set to have the largest affect on markets.

“If we’re looking at the politics, the geopolitics, I don’t think that those risks are priced in, because it’s [a] difficult thing to play,” he informed CNBC.

When requested whether or not China or U.S. politics offered a larger threat to markets, Dalio mentioned it was essential that “we work well together.”

“Our greatest risk is not China. Our greatest risk is ourselves,” he added.

Mark Carney, the United Nations particular envoy on local weather motion and finance, informed CNBC that he believed sustainability “hasn’t slipped down the agenda of investors.”

The previous governor of the Financial institution of England mentioned that funding in clear vitality grew by 50% in 2023 to $1.8 trillion, up from $1.2 trillion in 2022.

“There’s a huge surge in investment in clean energy, in EVs, [electric vehicles] in the whole supply chain,” Carney mentioned on Thursday.