Alibaba CEO at Davos: Humankind Must Protect Itself Against Onslaught of Killer AI

This is Agitation and Propaganda.

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If athletes can go to the Olympics, then why shouldn’t "good, hard-working, socially responsible businessmen" fly to Davos? The entrance ticket isn’t so expensive, only $ 55,000. This year, the list of Russian participants in the world's most influential people’s forum is unusually extensive. As if there were no sanctions and there was no personal disqualification ahead. And, what’s especially pleasing is that there isn’t a single oligarch among the whole delegation.

 

Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian Deputy Prime Minister: "We don’t think we have oligarchs. It was the concept of the 1990s. Now, we have good, hard-working businessmen who are socially responsible, who care for the country and earn money by engaging in responsible business".

This discovery alone could grace Davos' main discussion platform, "Artificial intelligence and its impact on the economy." However, it was soloed by a socially responsible billionaire from China, Jack Ma, the founder of the Alibaba company. And he said some absolutely seditious things for the billionaire.

Jack Ma: "We should spend more money on technologies that make life better. Very soon robots and artificial intelligence will destroy a lot of jobs. A person must be taught what’s inaccessible to the machine. Beliefs, values, independent thinking, teamwork, caring for others, that’s what's important. Children need to learn sports, music, drawing, art. If we don’t change the way we teach, in 30 years we’ll be in trouble. We won’t teach our children to compete with machines. Machines will win anyway".

They will, but not over everyone, but over those lucky to survive World War III, jokingly warned Jack Ma already out of habit. After all, a global conflict inevitably follows the technological revolution. If desired, signs of a growing conflict could be found in every Davos section.

- How's America doing? Is it great?

Donald Trump: America is great.

- And the rest of the world?

Donald Trump: Everyone's great.

The speech of this socially responsible businessman, undoubtedly, was to be the culmination of the Davos program. A kind of back-toast to last year's triumph of Xi Jinping. However, hearing Trump talk, you'd think there is neither Merkel nor Macron. Business, business.

Donald Trump, US President: "The world is witnessing the resurgence of a strong and prosperous America. I'm here to deliver a simple message: There's never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest, and to grow in the United States. America is open for business".

To understand the real mood of socially responsible businessmen we need to look into the analytical materials released for the forum. The report is called Global Risks 2018: Fractures, Fears and Failures.

"2017 was a year of widespread uncertainty, instability and fragility. The latest results of our survey suggest respondents are pessimistic about the year ahead, with 59% of them pointing to increased risks. We highlight four concerns: persistent inequality and unfairness, domestic and international political tensions, environmental dangers, and cyber vulnerabilities. We conclude by reflecting on the increased dangers of systemic breakdown".

And, as if on purpose, another piece of statistics coincided with Davos, confirming that the fears of socially responsible guests aren’t so ungrounded at all.

"The development charity Oxfam launched a new report showing that the richest 42 people in the world hold as much wealth as the 3.7 billion who make up the poorest half of the world’s population. The report published on Monday said billionaires had been created at a rate of one every two days over the past 12 months, at a time when the bottom 50% of the world’s population had seen no increase in wealth. 82% of the global wealth generated in 2017 went to the most wealthy 1%. The charity said it was "unacceptable and unsustainable".

However, wealth doesn’t bring peace. Here is a diagram of the mood of that same one percent. Red color shows the share of those scared. The reasons for their fear are the growth of confrontation between major powers, military clashes, regional conflicts, destruction of trade agreements and international treaties.

Andrey Kostin, VTB Bank CEO: "The West wants to put pressure on Russia through sanctions, this is an economic war. But it’s not just a trade war. Who knows what is going to happen in Syria, or in the Baltics or in the Black Sea where you have now American military ships. I see no reason why the Russian ambassador should stay in Washington any longer after that or the American ambassador staying swimming in cold water in Moscow".

Arkady Dvorkovich: "It's not Russia that’s hiding from the dialogue. It's the Americans who’re hiding from us in Davos. The village is small, but they don’t want to talk to us".

 -Did they answer your emails?

Arkady Dvorkovich: We have channels for communication.

The channels got blocked. Actually, no one wants to deny it. The game is over. Here’s a new defense doctrine just adopted in the United States:

"Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security. We realize that our military superiority is depreciating, we're threatened by anarchy in international politics and the decline of the world order".

For the slow-witted, there’s a direct indication to those powers meant.

"China and Russia are now undermining the international order from within the system by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously undercutting its principles".

And there’s only one country that doesn’t violate anything, doesn’t undermine anything and follows the rules with all its might. That’s why nuclear warheads continue to arrive at the Guam airbase, and 2,000 US soldiers will remain in Syria for an indefinite period. The situation requires this.

Rex W. Tillerson, the US Secretary of State: "Only yesterday, more than twenty people, mostly children, became victims of a chemical attack. These recent attacks in eastern Ghouta make us believe that Bashar Assad’s regime continues to use chemical weapons against his own citizens. Whoever committed this attack and others like it, the responsibility for what happened lies with Russia, since it was Russia who intervened in the Syrian events".

The clanking of the Turkish tanks caterpillars and the artillery cannonade over Afrin only supplemented this wonderful alpine symphony. And it’s regrettable that its lowest voice was the voice of John McDonnell, one of the leaders of the British left, perhaps the only representative of the very three and a half billion who will never earn a ticket to Davos.

John McDonnell, British Labour Party politician: "Davos is now awaiting a snow avalanche, and the system based on enriching the privileged will provoke this avalanche. When people are told that life’s improving, but they don’t see it, they begin to demand real changes. A bunch of rich people from Davos received great power and money but deceived very many. If they continue to stand in the way of change, they’ll pay a high price."

Agitation and Propaganda