In 2003 - the a year before a 19-year-old Harvard student called Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook - Philip Rosedale launched Second Life - an online virtual world that looked set to transform the internet. Two decades later, with the Facebook company, now called Meta, and its competitors seeking to develop the metaverse, what does Rosedale see as the future of the still emerging technology? Interview by Linda Lacina, host of the weekly Meet the Leader podcast. Related episodes: So just...

What is the single most important thing that any individual can do to help alleviate the climate crisis? Katharine Hayhoe is the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, a distinguished professor at Texas Tech University and the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. She believes that only if we all talk about climate change will humanity take the right paths to tackle climate change. But what if the person you are talking to doesn’t...

At the start of this year, the World Economic Forum published its annual Global Risks Report - a major survey of sentiment about what are the big things that could go wrong - in the economy, the environment, in health, cybersecurity, geopolitics - and more. In this podcast, we invite back the two guests who appeared on Radio Davos in January to talk about the report and its conclusion that the world faced a 'polycrisis' - a combination of risks from many sources. Carolina Klint, Managing...

Sourcing and scaling viable innovations to decarbonize ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors like mining and aviation will be critical to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals. How can we leverage cutting-edge technologies and adopt novel strategies to accelerate the race to net-zero in these sectors? This is the full audio from a panel discussion at the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2023 held September 20. Speakers: Vivek Salgaocar, Director and Co-Founder, Vimson Group;...

Gender parity has recovered to pre-pandemic levels globally, but the pace of change is stagnating. It will take an estimated 131 years to reach full parity at the current trajectory. How can we boost women’s economic participation and political empowerment and achieve gender parity at all levels of society? This is the full audio from a panel discussion at the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2023 held September 20. Speakers: Keir Simmons, Chief International Correspondent,...

Small and medium agricultural enterprises (agri-SMEs) are Africa’s largest employer and economic engine—and the key to transforming food systems and improving food security for the continent. Yet three out of four agri-SMEs can’t access formal bank financing, and are too large for microfinance, creating an estimated $100 billion gap in unmet demand for financing. How can donor governments, development finance institutions, African governments, and the private sector catalyze action to...

The World Economic Forum has just published its latest Chief Economists Outlook, a regular report based on the views of senior economists around the world.  This edition shows a glass half full and half empty, with concerns of widespread economic recession easing since the last report in May, but slowing global growth and continued economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. In this episode, Jérôme Haegeli, chief economist at Swiss Re, gives his views on the state of the global economy,...

Semiconductors make the world go round, and the most cutting-edge versions are necessary to propel the artificial intelligence revolution. Historian Chris Miller, author ‘Chip War’, explains what chips do, how they are made, and why they are so vital to global supply chains and international relations. Transcript available here: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/silicon-chips-semiconductors-chris-miller Read...

Professor Stuart Russell shares his concerns about the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence. Listen back to our 5-part series on generative AI: Episode 1: AI: Why everyone's talking about the promise and risks of this 'powerful wild beast' Episode 2: A common good? The companies making the AI products we'll soon all be using Episode 3: Responsible AI: how can philosophy help us make better tech? Episode 4: 'AI will either compete with us or augment us' - so how do we pick...

Designer phages, spatial optics, plant sensors and bendable batteries - just some of the items on this year's World Economic Forum Top 10 Emerging Technologies that will change our lives in the next 3-5 years. To talk us through all 10, we hear from the two people who led the work compiling the list: Mariette DiChristina, Dean and Professor of the Practice in Journalism, Boston University College of Communication; and Bernie Meyerson, Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus, IBM. LINKS: The...

Is the metaverse still a thing or has the world’s attention moved on to generative AI?  On this episode of Radio Davos, we speak to a vice president of the consumer electronics company HTC. Pearly Chen heads Business Development & Content Partnerships for VIVEPORT a subscription plan for virtual reality gaming - immersive video games played using VR headsets. Pearly is convinced of the potential for metaverse applications for healthcare, social care and education, and believes the...

Claude Marshall fled Nazi Germany as a small boy in the 1930s and now helps today’s refugees by fundraising for sports facilities in refugee camps. He tells Radio Davos why sport is so important for traumatised young people, and compares the plight of people today forced from their home with his own childhood experience. Related links: The World Economic Forum’s Refugee Employment Alliance, co-chaired by the UNHCR and the Ingka Group, Transcript available on the podcast episode page: ...

Can we prevent a repeat of COVID-19? In a new book, Disease X, author Kate Kelland looks at what we learned from the pandemic and how scientists, governments and societies can be better prepared for the next one. Links World Economic Forum’s Website page for the “Centre for Health and Healthcare”. https://centres.weforum.org/centre-for-health-and-healthcare/home Regional Vaccine Manufacturing...

The final episode of our AI series comes from the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC), the World Economic Forum’s ‘summer Davos’, in Tianjin, China. Cathy Li, head of AI at the World Economic Forum, says what needs to happen next as the world gets to grips with generative AI, and introduces the AI Governance Alliance. And we listen in to discussions at AMNC about AI - the opportunities for business and implications for things such as medicine and education. Follow AMNC...

Amid pressures on the global economy from recent major crises and renewed turbulence in financial markets, stakeholders will need to convert the bright spots of accelerated trade and investment in green and innovative industries into a new paradigm for sustained growth. How can both government and the private sector draw on the opportunities stemming from this time of change and transition to rewire the models underpinning global growth? Speakers: Zhang Yuzhuo, Chairman, State-owned...

In most parts of the world, the gender gap - the difference in opportunities and outcomes for women compared to men - is closing. But closing so slowly that it would take, at the current rate of progress, until 2154 for men and women to be truly equal. That statistic comes from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, an extensive, annual survey whose latest edition has just been published. In this episode, World Economic Forum Managing Director Saadia Zahidi picks some...

"AI will have some form of intelligence that will either compete with us or augment us. This is a question for us as a species. For the past thousands of years, we didn’t have a cousin or a brother and now we may have one. So it is how we understand that and how we deal with it." On Episode 4 of our special series on generative AI, we consider the options for how we can govern the rapidly growing technology. Guests: Amir Banifatemi, Director, AI Commons; Cyrus Hodes Co-Founder of AIGC Chain...

The rise of generative artificial intelligence raises a lot of philosophical questions. So can philosophy help us make AI that serves humanity for the good? On this episode we hear from 'applied ethicist' Cansu Canca, AI Ethics Lead at the Institute for Experiential AI, Northeastern University, USA; and from Sara Hooker, head of Cohere For AI, a research lab that seeks to solve complex machine learning problems. Full transcript available at: ...

For a transcript, visit the episode page at: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/ai-episode-2-microsoft-hugging-face In the second a special series on generative artificial intelligence, we hear from two companies involved in the AI revolution - one of the biggest and oldest names in computing, Microsoft, and a young startup making waves in this booming industry, Hugging Face. Speakers: Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft; Thomas Wolf Chief...

In the first of a special series on generative artificial intelligence, we ask why AI is suddenly such big news and where things might go from here. Speakers: Cathy Li, Head, AI, Data and Metaverse, World Economic Forum; Francesca Rossi, AI Ethics Global Leader, IBM Research; and Pascale Fung, Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Thumbnail picture: generated by Dall-E with the prompt 'the face of rodin's thinker as a robot' Transcript available on the episode page: ...

We are still in a period of great economic uncertainty, with inflation posing a risk around the world and forcing central banks to tighten policy. Three chief economists spoke to Radio Davos at the World Economic Forum's Growth Summit. Hear where they think the global economy is headed. Featuring: Jorge Sicilia of BBVA, Razia Khan of Standard Chartered and Gregory Daco of EY-Parthenon. Related Episodes: Chief Economists Outlook: What's next for the global economy? The future of jobs...

Wondering what job you’ll be doing in five years’ time? Chances are it may be quite different from what you do now, and you’ll need different skills. The transition to clean energy and the rise of artificial intelligence are likely to have a big impact on the world of work so employers, too, need to adopt a ‘skills-first’ mindset. We hear from Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore, who is putting theory into action, and to Tarika Barrett, CEO of Girls Who Code, a non-profit...

What’s going on in the global economy? Christian Keller, the Head of Economic Research at Barclays, joins Radio Davos to discuss the latest Chief Economists Outlook and explore what likely lies ahead for consumers, businesses and policymakers. Read the Chief Economists Outlook: https://www.weforum.org/reports/chief-economists-outlook-may-2023 More on the Growth Summit: https://www.weforum.org/events/the-growth-summit-jobs-and-opportunity-for-all-2023 A transcript is available on the...

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report is a snapshot of the world of work now, and a look into where we are going. The latest edition comes as we are still digesting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and as we all become aware of the massive impact that Artificial Intelligence is likely to have on pretty much every job humans do. Forum Managing Director Saadia Zahidi sets out the highlights of the report, and Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of online learning company Coursera talks about...

“Arguably the most common devastating disease that most people have never heard of. It affects at least one in nine women. It is the cause of up to 50% of infertility cases in women.” Endometriosis is the subject of director Shannon Cohn’s documentary Below the Belt. She tells how women have been overlooked, disbelieved and gaslit by medical practitioners and policymakers - and why that has to stop. Website of the movie Below the Belt: https://www.belowthebelt.film/ Find out more about the...