For evidence that artificial intelligence is the hottest of hot topics at the moment, look no further than the 2025 edition of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The future of AI was a major talking point at the meeting, even attracting high profile, if somewhat contrasting, interventions from US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis.
At January’s annual meeting of the world’s political and financial movers and shakers in Switzerland, Trump highlighted in a video address an agreement signed at the White House under which Oracle, Japan’s SoftBank, OpenAi and UAE-based MGX plan to invest $500bn in the construction of a network of data centres across the US.
The project, labelled Stargate, which was already being developed before Trump returned to the presidency for a second term, already has $100bn in funding available immediately and would create an estimated 100,000 jobs, according to the companies.
Some, including Tesla boss – and now Donald Trump’s efficiency tsar – Elon Musk, have expressed doubts over whether the scale of financing necessary for the project could be mobilised, but the companies are insistent that they have the financial resources.
The White House hopes that, if these ambitious plans are realized, they will help to give the US the edge in the race against competitors such as China to develop state-of-the-art AI technology.
Trump also hopes to speed up progress by redefining the framework for developing AI and reducing red tape. One of his first acts as president was to repeal legislation implemented by his presidential predecessor Joe Biden, which provided guardrails for AI-tech development. Those were well-regarded by some leading figures in the tech world, and Trump has yet to say what would replace the rules.
Pope Francis, meanwhile, approached the topic from a different angle, saying in a written statement presented to the forum that artificial intelligence raised “critical concerns” about humanity’s future.
“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,” the pontiff said.
The challenges in balancing the benefits of AI against the potential pitfalls also informed discussion of the topic elsewhere at Davos.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now heads his own think tank – the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change – told delegates that finding a way to harness AI properly would “transform everything”, but many governments had not fully taken on board the fundamental change that AI and related technology is triggering.
“Many countries are already doing great things, but we are only at the foothills of this revolution,” he said.
Momentum builds
Company chiefs also foresaw the coming year as one in which AI agents would start to be used more widely in businesses to automate some tasks, especially the more repetitive, least complex ones.
Tech entrepreneur Marc Benioff, CEO of software company Salesforce, said at Davos that today’s company leaders would be the last to oversee an entirely human workforce. He told a panel session that from now on, “we will be managing not only human workers but also digital workers”.
That is a trend likely to be seen in the energy industry, where AI is already being deployed to in areas such as predictive maintenance and reservoir development in the oil and gas industry as well as routine back-office operations.
Furthermore, as speakers in Davos noted, AI is already making renewable energy development more effective, for example by allowing greater accuracy in optimization of wind farms and predicting how policies such as carbon pricing influence behaviour.
Whatever the potential AI may have to revolutionise the way we live and work, implementing it in a way that is affordable and effective remains challenging – a point accentuated by energy firms in a survey of industry executives on which we recently reported.
The WEF itself also sought to provide guidance on AI. The forum launched a report covering the role of AI in global trade by presenting current applications of AI across trade processes, such as supply chains, logistics, trade finance, and customs and compliance.
It also launched a cross-industry report series entitled Industries in the Intelligent Age, which aims to provides actionable insights into the responsible adoption at scale of AI across critical sectors.
Siemens CEO Roland Busch said on launching the series that AI technology was emerging at a critical time, as industries face skilled labour shortages and productivity is stagnating in most advanced economies.
“Unlocking its full potential will require collaboration across industries to ensure AI creates sustainable growth and drives meaningful innovation,” he said.
(Photo: World Economic Forum/Thibaut Bouvier)
