Davos 2024: AI, Big Tech, and Trump Steal the Show

Hours before the official start of the World Economic Forum on Monday evening, a line of more than four dozen people snaked onto the sidewalk in front of the AI House, a nonprofit convened in the name of providing a “multi-stakeholder platform for visionary dialogue and collaboration on key questions shaping the next frontier.” A couple of doors down, an even longer line of attendees jostled for space inside a forum on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity hosted by Axios, the American news operation. People took selfies while swapping tips on how to score invites to the glitziest parties thrown by global technology companies. And just down the block, a rented storefront outfitted as the gathering place for the Alliance for Global Good-Gender Equity and Equality sat mostly empty. The initiative was launched by the Indian government two years ago to bolster women’s health and education. Here at Davos, its place was mostly unnoticed. People passed by hurriedly, en route to neon-tinted cocktails served up by a cryptocurrency firm or a pulsating lounge experience paid for by an A.I. company. On a small stretch of a promenade, the main street threading the village of Davos in the Swiss Alps, was a visual distillation of what has come of the World Economic Forum, a conference long touted as the central gathering place of the global elite.