DAVOS(Switzerland): Israel's president and the head of ChatGPT company OpenAI will make appearances at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, the third day of the annual gathering of elites at the Swiss resort of Davos that discusses everything from conflict to computers and climate.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog could seek to return focus on the plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas since its deadly Oct. 7 raid into Israel. Much of the world's attention has been on rising casualty counts in Gaza as Israeli forces lead a blistering military campaign aimed to quash the armed militants.
A breakfast panel on the sidelines of the meeting Thursday concentrated on Ukraine's fight against Russia, a major theme in Davos this year.
Polish President Andrzej Duda called for the release of confiscated Russian assets in Western banks to help Ukraine, saying $60 billion earmarked for reconstruction of Ukraine by the United States and €50 billion by the European Union were "crucial."
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron urged the EU and U.S. to move forward with stalled aid packages and urged Ukraine's allies to remember that together their economies are 25 times bigger than Russia's: "All we need to do is make our economic strength show, make it pay, and we will be able to help Ukraine bring this to to a conclusion."
The four-day confab at Davos has taken up a vast array of topics, not least the concerns about climate change and artificial intelligence that offers economic promise to some, and peril for jobs to others.
"Artificial intelligence is now undoubtedly the most important potential contribution for global development," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters in Davos on Wednesday, a day when leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and President Javier Milei of Argentina also showed up.
"This is something that cannot be dealt with business as usual," he added, saying governments were "to a certain extent, ill-equipped, ill-prepared, to deal with this new reality."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who kept his job after a turbulent executive-suite reshuffle late last year, will take part in a panel that explores how technology could "amplify our humanity," right after another discussion on whether generative AI is a "boon or bane for creativity."
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani will take part in a Q&A session Thursday. On Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister defended his country's strike on what he claimed was an Israeli intelligence operations site in the autonomous Kurdish region.
The husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, was traveling to Davos on Thursday to talk about combating antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate and to promote gender equity and women's rights.
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