How to Prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

[Music] great great good evening my name is n Woods I'm the founding dean of the blatnik school of government at Oxford University and it's a great pleasure to be moderating uh this session at the world economic Forum this year uh let me just point a small logistical detail out uh I have here an iPad on which your questions will appear I'm not exactly sure how you get your question onto my iPad but um apparently there will be instructions put on a slide but I would welcome your questions right from the beginning of this session I'd love it to be a conversation that I'm going to introduce you to our panelists in a moment but before we move to that I'd just like to introduce tonight's topic by saying that last year at dvos we all were invited to master the fourth Industrial Revolution greatly helped by K Claus Schwab's excellent book on the subject this year a different challenge has sharpened people across Europe and across the United States have in a way risen up and said we don't feel we belong and we don't feel we're being heard by leaders in the public sector and sometimes leaders in the private sect sector the Claus Schwab proposed to us on the eve of this year's World economic Forum that that fact means that we all have to now focus on responsive and responsible leadership and he put to us the idea that a good leader has radar and a compass so think about what president Xi Jinping told us this morning if we want to cross the ocean can't Retreat back into the but every time there's a storm so the leaders in this room certainly need radar to know what citizens are thinking and wanting and concerned about you certainly need a compass as Professor Schwab tells us the values that are going to take you forward but I think we need to add one thing you need a crew you need to bring people along with you governments across the world need a narrative that helps people people to feel that they do belong that they are being heard that's one way that they can start to rebuild trust so what we're going to do on tonight's panel is we're going to share have these panelists share their wisdom on where we are at the beginning of 2017 and what are the ways that we can begin to rebuild trust and to manage the fourth Industrial Revolution in a way that helps societies come together more cohesively more prosperously and I'd like to start by turning to Dr Vishal Sika the CEO of infas Vishal you're the son of a Railways engineer you saw technology at that phase and you're also a surfer so you know all about dodging the waves um what's the disruption that we most need to pay attention to that's coming from the new technologies and and why why should we pay so much attention to the dis to the disruption I think the uh if you look at the um the the way the people are affected as you described um and all the geopolitical changes that are happening they are all happening within the wider context of the technological disruption that is impacting all of us in particular the development and the advance of of AI technology I think that a artificial intelligence and certainly the advance that we have seen just in the last one year and certainly in the last few years when I look back on this time compared to when I was a PhD student studying AI it is staggering and yet in many ways we are in the beginnings of this technology and the Revolution and in many ways we Face the prospect of leaving a larger SWA of humanity behind us um in the light of this technology than any technology that we have ever created so we need to be extra careful extra conscious put in an extra effort to ensure that we don't create a bigger divide uh that we don't create a even bigger Society of have knots that the technology that we build now is in service of everyone uh and that means education a deep commitment to education that means a a deep commitment to helping people bridge this displacement Gap uh when Technologies disrupt jobs and and so forth uh that means uh creating a sense of we can create and reshape the future of these Technologies for our future in a way that benefits everyone and doesn't leave large parts of humanity behind that's what I see so so in Britain in the United States in other countries in Europe it feels as though people are staging a mutiny the crew are not with established governments and established leaders is that happening in India um is there a fear of mutiny or a risk of mutiny I think uh and M if I can speak about this in um much more richness the uh I think in India there is a tremendous opportunity there is a um it's a in India is a young country India is a technologically advanced country uh India is a very entrepreneurial country in ways that are not seen in the outside and yet when you look at the recent um uh demonetization that was done in India you can see both of these aspects at play the opportunity that technology can create and the way that some of these disruptions can really affect the com the the ordinary people so the answer to your question is both yes and no depending on how we look at India but perhaps mesh can speak about this in more detail well let me move straight to Mukesh then mesh Amani you've watched Reliance grow from being a 1 million company to being a $70 billion company that's extraordinary growth but in a country where there's a lot of poverty and there's also a fantastic democratic tradition of of rebellion what what's your view on the disruption in India well I think uh if we first start with what Vishal said in terms of uh how do people how does Humanity progress and how do we as a society progress right I think that at this time in India we are blessed with uh having very strong leadership from our prime minister Mr Modi he has painted a vision for India which creates foundations because when you Embrace technology you should use technology for the good of all people and I think that the Technologies of the fourth Industrial Revolution really are all inclusive and will benefit all and there require a sense of foundation and let me you know quickly just tell you what Vishal said so even if we are a very young country we have 200 million of our 1.2 billion in schools and clearly education needs to transform itself the fastest way that we can transform education in a big country like India is use technology it's the biggest equalizer it can produce results in not decades but in the next 3 to 5 years and that can then create and benefit all so for all of this you really need a foundation and you need for a country and a society to embrace rather than isolate itself to as uh Premier Z said in the morning that uh if the world is interconnected by oceans you don't need to divide it into rivers and lakes and the same thing is true when you want to embrace uh technology so from that point of view yes I also believe that uh all the components of technology and particularly the fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies are all inclusive so in a sense they are the biggest equalizer for a country like India for all all our 1.2 billion people we in India have uh a foundation where we have got an identity system for over 1.1 billion people this will then enable us right with the recent demonetization and the movement to digital cash uh so far India has been only what I call a high value low volume credit transaction so the common man the ordinary man the people whose voice uh everybody should hear right had no access to credit I think that that can change very very fast with embracement of technology and you know there can be many such uh example so in summary what is happening in India is that we are embracing technology for leadership our young people are embracing technology Society is moving and in the last 90 days because of demonetization we've had a major movement to what I call less cash or digital cash and people have accepted that there is support at the grassroot level because in the end they think it is for a better life for themselves and as long as uh we are responsible to deliver that and I believe that the fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies can deliver that it'll do well but can I ask you very personally you know the world many many people across the world are saying that globalization has been managed you know by folks like all of us and has benefited the top 1% much much more than anyone else that's in sharp Focus now what do you feel personally as your as one of the 1% so what's your personal responsibility is it to support your government to distribute better is it to how how do you see that moving forward how do you see your own responsibility moving forward well I think that it is very important that opportunities are given equally to all right and what interconnected like we have all 7 billion people on this world are in a sense should be connected and they should have a shared Destiny and shared Prosperity doing that that right once you have access to opportunity you first have to create wealth before you can distribute wealth so for a country like India I am extremely committed and as I have seen the wealth creation on a grassroot basis right uh it's important that to raise standards of living and quality of life for all our billion people we give a fair share of opportunity to everybody give education to everybody embrace the free market for creation of wealth and then once wealth is created right distribution is the easier problem to have but you shouldn't shun creation of wealth creation of wealth is more important than distribution of we right I mean I think in a lot of parts of the world people are saying yes we've been hearing that for 30 years but it looks as though the distribution is becoming more and more skewed to the top 1% Mark Benny off your chair and CEO of Salesforce um and you tell me a committed ukulele player um but how do you see the responsibility of the 1% who have so benefited from globalization yeah well for me when I started a Salesforce uh you know 17 years ago I thought a lot about how do we integrate companies more deeply into society how do we get back how do we um support many of the NGS that are here that's why when we started our company we put 1% of our Equity our profit and our time into a a nonprofit and NGO code salesforce.org it was easy at the time because we had no employees we had no products or Equity uh but today of course you know we are a company with a market cap of 50 Something billion dollars and we have 25,000 employees and so we've been able to give back um um hundreds of Millions but also millions of hours of volunteerism and we run 30,000 nonprofits and Nos and many of them are here uh for free on our services equality in the equality crisis certainly is a child of globalization you know the access to Capital and the access to this technology that is really available to so few then really gives them this kind of incredible unfair advantage and up they have gone I think coming back to vishal's comment I think that when we look at what's happening right now in technology um this this is the moment I think when we have the highest level of anxiety because we can see advancements in artificial intelligence that are beyond what we um even expected it's happening at a rate and capability that we're worrying that um how how will this impact um uh the the every man and also the the the the broad broad range of workers across the world this year my heart has been with so many migrants and refugees who um 65 million refugees across the world and these touching stories and and and and and thinking about um how they're going to get back to stability in homes I I think now about how artificial intelligence will create digital refugees and how people will be displaced from jobs tens of millions of people across the planet because technology is moving forward so rapidly creating much lower cost much easier to use and much more capable uh work environments so companies individuals um very people that we have here we have to decide are we going to be committed to supporting uh and improving uh this uh state of the world or are we just going to kind of let this go as it is and so we're really at a very we're at a crucial crucial point right now uh I'm convinced can I just uh follow up so what's the solution to that you've just painted a picture of hundreds of thousands millions of people who will no longer have jobs and and what is it that you think leaders should be doing now to ensure that those those people feel included and heard in the Societies in which they live well I think that you know that throughout history technology has displaced workers but then workers have the opportunity to be trained or retrained or vocational training or education or supported and today there's more people working in the world than there ever has been in the history of the world as evidence to that point so we're at a very good place actually now obviously there's 200 million youth you know who are unemployed that's a a terrible statistic that we need to focus on there is you know pockets of dramatic unemployment throughout the world even where I live in the United States but we are at a point where it's possible that this technology could accelerate to the point where we'll see this kind of creation of these uh digital refugees and I think that that is something that we really need to be mindful of and start having these very serious conversations multi-stakeholder dialogues honestly you know where we can bring together corporate leaders government leaders social leaders NOS only through a multi-stakeholder dialogue are we going to get this answer there is no you know clear path forward and as V said so well all this has just happened you know in a matter of months so we are really just on the just you know it's a fairly recent um observation of what What's happen happening today it's quite it's quite you know it's an amazing time that's why we call it the fourth Industrial Revolution this is incredible what is happening all these things at once cloud computing mobile Computing artificial intelligence genetic engineering all these things are happening all at one so well articulated in Professor Schwab's book so and what's the thing that's happened just in the last few months to which you're referring well the advancements in artificial intelligence the ability for the software to learn more rapidly than we we expected MH um can I move to Mary barah um Mary you grew up child of a die maker and but put yourself through college and you've been at GM 36 years um your crew probably trust you a lot in fact there's lots of evidence that they do but you're in a car industry that's negotiating difficult Waters some would say that the government in the United States is threatening to do what president xiin ping this morning said to retreat to retreat back to its own Harbor or to require its companies to retreat back to their own Harbor um what's your strategy in those difficult Waters well you know clearly the clearly the the industry uh the Auto industry is undergoing you know rapid transformation as almost every industry is in uh not only you know advancements in I'll say the traditional owner driver model but then you know the opportunities with autonomist that you know do provide a lot of societal benefit when you think about the fact that uh whether it's it's the population that can't uh doesn't have the skills to drive uh or the physical ability to drive autonomous really provides uh freedom of getting from point A to point B which for all of us that can do that is is a huge benefit so you know we look at the technology are coming we see how it is going to improve for society but you know we have to look at how how are those shifts going to be made and and how do we manage that business and you know clearly uh articulating the vision so our employees it's for us I think it starts with our employees and our customers of understanding and and building the trust of here's where we're going and you know here's how things will change and and how we have to adapt but then also Pro providing a road map I've talked about the fact that you need to be incredibly transparent in order to have trust people people have to you you really have to paint the picture and and not only share the good news but share the difficult news and then the solutions how you're going to move forward one of the other key areas and and a couple of the other panelists have mentioned is education and we're at at General Motors investing a lot in not only educating our existing um employees for the new technical skills that are going to be needed but also reaching deep um into all the communities in which we live and work in the education systems there of how can we support to make sure um there's more stem uh education involved and we just got involved with a girl a strategic partnership was announced with girls who code because when you look at um and and deep diving into the middle school to make sure young girls are are not making decisions at that point that are going to you know really make it more difficult for them to get involved in a Technology field because technology is a part of almost every industry so you know there's an obligation that we feel from to our employees in communicating and painting the picture of where they're going and providing the road maps that you know each individually eventually has to be accountable for but then also reaching deeper into making sure that as the workforce as we grow the workforce as as you know children enter the workforce and and young adults that they've got the skills that are going to be necessary because right now not only do we have uh some that are unemployed but we also have areas where you know there's there's jobs available and we don't have people with the skill set so if you if you fast forward 10 years in your industry will it be mostly robots no I mean I I still think the traditional owner driver model of I get in you know drive my own vehicle I mean think that there's markets around the world that you know they aspire to have that type of personal Mobility I think autonomous if you put yourself if you put um the customer in the center and look at how do I add PE value to people's lives uh you know it's going to be the full range from the model we know today to dense urban areas that autonomous is going to make sense because it reduces congestion uh you know driving isn't that um uh remarkable when you're in stop and go traffic with no place to park and so if you look at solving real issues for for the customer I think there's going to be a wide variety of solutions for a very long time but I guess I'm asking um when President elect Trump um suggests to a different company that they should produce their cars in America not Mexico there's an assumption that the jobs will go to American workers instead of Mexican workers but surely in the end it's just going to go to American robots the people who make car I think that's a bit of a jump I think that's a bit of a jump having been in the company for 36 years and actually worked in the area where you know when you look from a from a Workforce perspective yes there's automation that's used but when you need flexibility and you think about the customization that happens in our industry the most flexible uh uh asset is is a human being that can do do different things so I still think it's going to be a blend I I see it every day um and so I I I I think that's oversimplifying what's really going to happen thank you um chairman Shu can I come to you you're chairman of uh China's um electricity grid company you grew up in the countryside outside of Beijing um your parents had no electricity but you were part of a generation that did have electricity and you were telling me about your love of reading No Doubt with electric light I doubt you dreamt that you would be heading China's electricity grid company did you dream that as a child no no no and now you're there you've got a tough job because the Chinese people the Chinese government say that they have a crisis of polluted air polluted food polluted water and yet you've got a billion people to provide energy for and you're right at the heart of that yeah is technology going to help you do that yes yes sure uh yeah I'm a electrical engineer and I have been I have been working uh for the power industry uh over 35 years already uh yes in my childhood it just started uh to uh electrification in the rural areas uh but now uh China's power industry is uh very strong mhm uh state grade of China corpor Corporation of China uh ranked number two uh in the uh five uh for uh Global for 500 number two now and with a ten no over three uh three uh 100 billion US Dollars and we are facing a lot of energies MH first of all you know China energy sector the co uh is dominated M so how to uh uh provide the electricity to the 1.3 billion people and also with uh clean and uh clean and clean and the safe and the reliable energy that's our challenge uh for for many years we have put a lot of uh put a lot of effort on that uh the first uh one is a Technology Innovation so in my company we have invented the UV technology you know UV techn technology means we we upgrade uh the the voltage of the transmission M so in China in my company we have 1100 uh plus and minus 1100 KV transmission lines uh also we have invented the 800 KV USV DC technology with that technology with the USV DC technology we can transmit the power from the West part of the country to the East part and in the west we have a plentiful of the water uh uh resources and the core resources especially we have a uh renewable energy located in the west so how to transmit the large part of the power to the uh load Center in the East High so last week a couple of your cities were asphyxiating in the smog how it's a race isn't it you need to get electricity to the poorest parts of China yes but your cities have to be livable yeah and they're becoming unlivable yeah so can you win that race yeah we uh uh we have made achievement for for the power of wall every every household in China now can be exess of the electricity MH yeah M that put a lot of effort a lot so now in China even you live in the very remote areas you can no problem to use the electricity yeah and what about the other panelists have talked about the the kind of reactions to globalization president xiin ping mentioned it this morning I remember being in China when China was exceeding to the WTO and there was a very Lively debate about the pros and cons of globalization but is there is there an anti-globalization movement yeah in China is there a concern that that people are worried that the reason why their air is dirty is because of globalization is that part of what you're thinking about yeah uh in the morning president Shin gave a very important speech after president's speech I heard a lot of discussions from the audience from the cers they think uh they all think president uh Speech give first one gave a confidence uh to the uh world society they they gave the confidence for China economy uh give us a uh a clean picture for uh sustainable development for China we will maintain the uh relatively high high higher uh grow rate the this confidence will help the world economic uh development I think this is a very very very important message for today's uh World economy for the globalization in China uh we I think in my personal view uh I think the globalization is inevitable it's good for uh for the world economy uh development in my company we have uh uh isight in uh seven in six countries we have uh uh take the share we have to uh taken the shares of the Isis for the transmission and the distribution is and uh we are going to continue we hope uh the globalization will move very uh uh normal and then no obligation for the investment but you must be worried that while Chinese people are believing in globalization a lot of people in the markets to whom you sell are urging their governments to close borders no no so so you will you will need um the cooperation of those other those other countries yeah to continue yes we need a cooperation with uh internation internationally so uh for my company we are looking we are still looking for some opportunities uh to uh uh corporate with our uh in in the enery sector so we are looking for that very good thank you very much um some questions are coming in from the audience I have to say lots of them and I'm going to throw this to all the panel and the bravest one will put his or her hand up first but the questions are quite a lot about when will the usual prescriptions of education and Entrepreneurship um be recognized as not good enough we've heard this every year at daros Mark let me let me throw that one or V Mark and Vel you know you've both mentioned education and Entrepreneurship simp simple answer to that never education and Entrepreneurship are the correct answers the reason that we keep hearing about these over and over again is we are just not doing enough of these um we there is no other answer the everything that we have learned to do is something that we have learned to do it is there is no magic here uh all these technologies that are reshaping the world around us all these movements have to be train we people have to be trained on these people have to be taught these there is no magic to it um entrepreneurship why is entrepreneurship important important I think you have you know all all of us here are entrepreneurs Mark's example that Mark talked about is an example of Entrepreneurship and of giving um the the solution seem straightforward um it is in the implementation of these that uh is where all the the magic is um in my mind you know John McCarthy the father of artificial intelligence once said that articulating a problem is half the solution we are rapidly approaching a time where AI is going to be able to solve the problems that we can articulate mechanically uh the human Frontier is problem finding and today we still live in a time where you know Innovation or entrepreneurship is something that is viewed as a mystical thing that that is available to a Chosen Few people that there are the entrepreneurs Who come out of somewhere and then they invent things but the reality is that the act of invention is something that can be taught um people can be trained to see something that is not there and that if it was there it would improve the world and this is an act of Entrepreneurship so um education and Entrepreneurship are the answer we just aren't doing enough of it okay so Mark you're you're nodding but across across the United States and Europe there's been a mutiny this last year a revolution um yeah I'd like to go back to your last question first which is that I'm asking about that so is it that people are just not doing the education and Entrepreneurship uh well I think you've got two different things going on I think one is we're going to have to exactly what Vall said number one is we're going to have to continue to explore uh new models of Education certainly in the United States our Public School System uh needs all of our attention I have encouraged you know every CEO to adopt a public school in the United States we've I've done that I've you know our company has also adopted a public school district obviously there's going to have to be new models of Education including vocational training new ideas things that have been pioneered here in Switzerland but that may not be enough we may also have to bifurcate to basic income as well and that is something that you're hearing a little bit here at the conference we've heard that um uh in guian uh session here in his work uh we see those basic income experiments happening even where I am in Oakland uh funded by the co y combinator Sam Alman we've seen them in other parts of Europe and Africa um in India as well I think that is going to be potentially something that's going to have to be explored uh we're in we're entering some new territories m is it is it time for a new code for private sector leaders you know some would say that we've come through a kind of cowboy period Frontier period M um where any goes because the benefits will eventually trickle down but do you think we're now on the threshold of a different code well I mean that's why we're here at the world economic Forum where this forum is built on something that I believe is absolutely critical for the future which is stakeholder theory that CEOs can pivot to this idea that they're all about shareholders and that the business of business is business or cosos can pivot to stakeholder Theory which is what Professor Schwab pioneered uh in the early 7s and built this forum on which is that a CEO has to take care of many stakeholders not just the shareholders but their course customers Partners employees um as well as their local community their schools the environment these are all stakeholders and as Leaders modern leaders here at this forum we have to think about stakeholder Theory um as I think one of our key paths forward certainly we're the the engaging in multi-stakeholder dialogues especially when you see all kinds of different voices emerging in the world some that we might like some that we might not like but only through multistakeholder dialogue will we be able to elevate um our Consciousness and get to these answers we are um going through a major shift in the world everybody here knows that and so these are some of the answers one of the reasons that I love coming to this conference by the way is because it's built on that foundation and I'd like to ask each of you because you are all regular is with the exception of chairman Shu who it's a delight to have with us this year but so you come to the world economic forum and you do get this opportunity to debate values challenges could you each give us an example of something that you've gone away and either thought differently about or changed in your own company as a result mesh do you have a a thought on that well I just uh add a few few years ago right we changed the as our own company became big and came out of our own interactions that uh for a company it's very important to generate societal value right all of us live in society Society gives you a license to operate in a business and until you add value to that you just cannot do it only for your shareholders or your employees or you know you you have to make a difference and uh we started measuring that and we now publish that and we make sure that uh everybody understands that uh uh societal value is important because that is important for sustainability because on an ongoing basis the corporation can survive so that's one example that came out of interactions here where we changed in the last four or five years MH Mary what what would what would your example be or what would you want this year's leaders to take away and do differently well I think uh it really gets to truly focusing on the customer and solving real issues and I think you know you talk when you really see an issue that you can solve um that that's when people innovate and it's not just entrepreneurs in in you know one area of the country or the world it but it's everyone in their job of how do they make it better how do they really focus on the customer and I think also um looking at all of the stakeholders and so I think those are two things at General Motors we very much you know we we say we want to be the most valued automotive company but it's not valuable to just our owners but we feel as we um work and and have strong relationships and and do the right thing across all of our stakeholders that in the end will be the best solution for our shareholders but the the core of that starts with the customer and truly focusing on what is really going to add value to the customer going to improve improve their life and when you get a whole organization 12,000 people looking at how do I how do I improve every day make it better and focus on making decisions around the customer um it really energizes the entire company but I want to just add to what Mary said because she's been an advocate for this and I think that one of the key stakeholders in the world is women you know if we look at where we are on gender equality the world economic Forum has said it's going to take another something like 170 years to get to parody with men we don't have time to wait you know every CEO needs to look at are you paying men and women the same that that is something that every CEO can do today we all have modern Human Resource Management systems but as a CEO are you willing to step up and say I pay men and women the same I'm providing not only equal opportunity and equal advancement but also equal pay that that's I think a major shift to empower women in society is I think critic part of the voice in getting that across Belle can I come to you I mean this is a particular year because as I keep repeating you there has been a mutiny what's what's the thing that you think leaders should take away this year I think that um two things that so Mark earlier talked about the giving that his company does and has exemplified we have to ask ourselves do we all do something of that sort and and do that the um how how much do we invest in training uh in Australia they recently put in a a law to get 1% of the uh salaries or income uh for train employee training how many of us are doing that um the I think that this idea of Designing systems for a for a for few is something that we have to abandon and we have to Design Systems products and services for everyone especially for the have kns um we we have that is a and that requires a unique commitment to empathy um to and design thinking is an example of this um designing Mary talked about this designing cars and um and systems of that sort with the end user in mind uh including the displaced people the I think that the asymmetry in technology I mean if you just look at uh the top five companies in the world by market cap now are technology companies and and I always wonder why isn't every company a technology company um what is it about technology we all learned learn technology you know it did not drop from the skies we learned technology and we learned to build it um why can't we bring this idea of um Building Technology for everyone um for for all of us so I think inclusive technology uh creating access to these things we should as corporations as CEOs As Leaders stop waiting around for somebody else to come and tell us to do things or um for for somebody else to do them for us and instead take the initiative and do in doing these things ourselves and can I pick up with that because you're talking about inclusive technology now what we can see the digital revolution has done is polarized societies created Echo Chambers people only talking to people who agree with them and their views become magnified and polarized we all live in very diverse societies this is very dangerous terrain where Society instead of pulling more together is fragmenting and pulling apart is there a software solution to that um the not software for collaboration you know uh one of the um so the answer to that is again yes and no the um in the early days when the memo was written to create um the internet um jcr licklider wrote this memo called uh connecting the um the interplanetary the intergalactic communication Network and uh the idea because he he thought that you know Engineers will try to lob all things and then they will build a network for the planet um and which is what we ended up doing with the internet over the last 40 50 years um the so on the one hand technology has connected us in an extraordinary way uh if you just look at how well how deeply connected we all are as a society now I mean um we had the opportunity to work with Mukesh Bai on his new Venture in Gio and there are now something like in the last 4 months 80 million people in India who are subscribers of go um so technology has an incredible ability to connect us and uh um and unite us and yet a software for collaboration is something that is still in a very primitive state if you look at the way we do our word processing or um know crunching capturing information and so forth it is still largely the same as it has been for the last 30 years or so uh technology to really help us collaborate to help us achieve a shared perspective a shared meaning is is still in early stages we still have to come together to places like Davos and and sit together to really understand what is going on we don't yet have software that helps us get there more conveniently so it is on the one hand yes and on the other hand it is still early and and the counternarrative to that is that software is also dividing us certainly you can see in social media especially in regards to recent events that are I don't have to go into in detail that um the software was used in many cases to divide Society uh Bots were created to take on uh Anonymous uh positions in social media that look like humans amplifying um uh narratives that may not have been true and that is an example where the technology is dividing us so this again this is a new frontier this is also part of the fourth Industrial Revolution when we look at what has social media done to us yes we like to be on Twitter we get real-time feedback I'm getting that right here I'm looking at what people are saying and what they want me to respond to just as you are on your iPad and of course that's part of the fourth Industrial Revolution but the other side of it is there's also account um all kinds of intelligence and and network uh capability that's out there trying to push this Society in a certain direction that is new that's certainly something that we really have not seen happen before so but solutions from Mark or from anyone on the panel you know that this is dangerous stuff when the Technologies become magnifiers of fear of hatred of others of polarization because we know that when people are afraid they don't work together and that means that they turn to governments as it were that don't permit them to work together that control them and coers them so this is a this is a pretty important moment for so are there Solutions if technology is the driver of this are there Technology Solutions for it I don't know if it's necessary a technology solution but I think now more than ever corporations governments communities and Mark said this before we have to work together and you know there and and and demonstrate and and look at some of the broader issues that society as a whole the world is facing uh and and take action I mean in the Auto industry you know one of the things we feel very responsible for is how do we improve the environment and and the Investments that we're making in the technology leadership so I think is if you know governments countries um communities if we work together to solve some of these issues and solve some of the bigger problems I think it demonstrates you know that we can work together I don't know if there's a software solution for people stepping back and wanting to listen and wanting to understand another point of View and respecting another point of view even if it's not theirs and but I I think there's a role that we can play that we have to work together in a way we haven't um to this point chairman Shu can I come to you because an underlying theme um of this Mutiny is that International cooperation itself could be at risk and you've LED on International cooperation in technology yeah in the IEC um what is most at risk there why why is it that we really need International cooperation on technology in your sector yeah I mean it's nice to have but is there any part of it that is absolutely essential yes uh I have been working for I for many years I stands for international electr technical commission mhm uh the uh product of the Ia is a uh standard standards uh standards can promote the international trat with uh technical technology standards and uh IC now has over 20,000 expertise Engineers from all over the world so uh with the I standardization uh we uh the manufacturers and the labs and uh they can manufact man manufacture their products according to a unique standardization this much helpful do you think it's going to become more difficult though uh not really difficult because I was founded in 1906 11 years already and it's a very very good uh work proced working procedure everyone can participate for the uh standardization development it's very uh uh standard we mean the standards are produced by consensus people will uh uh agree every everyone iiz person will had to be agree with the standards and how important to that process is the fact that you all know each other yes I mean how long how long would you say the engineers in this group have been getting together from different countries how long have you known your fellow Engineers yeah uh the Ia work uh they divided many groups we called it uh we called uh uh it uh uh technical committee TCS in in the TC they they are working in the spe specific area for example like electrical electrical cars Engineers come together they meet several times in in the year and the for one standard may take several years to to uh uh to finish a is standards M it's uh very careful uh for the standardization I should say yeah no no no no no difficult people are very in sutic to participate the standardization development we can't we can't see any difficult to to do it yeah right it's a it's a very important and interesting reflection because a lot of us are watching the more ible aspects of international cooperation um at risk or breaking down and that basic Insight of people knowing one another coming together trusting one another and forging standards or as Mark put it coming to daros each year knowing one another looking at each other in the face coming to you know raise the standard of what you expect of yourself what you expect to do for the society around you could I ask you before we close I'd just like one sentence from each of you about what you think leaders across the private or the public sector or both what is it that leaders should do differently this year as a result of the wakeup call of the last year um two things come to my mind um one is uh resolve to bring access to uh new technologies to everyone and second one is resolve to create a billion entrepreneurs Mark well I've told you one thing which is I think that every coo needs to adopt a a public school I I really think that you know we're going to Pivot to where each of us are is going to have to take personal action to overcome the kind of um um levels of of inequality that we're seeing as we kind of head back to our hometowns wherever they are you know you don't have to go very far even in San Francisco where I am where I can find you know very high levels of inequality I think that everybody has to really focus on this and take this seriously and and do one thing it could be Adopt A School it it it could be working more closely with an NGO um that there's a commitment I think that each of us has to make to kind of get to the move this ball Ford thank you mes well I think that uh last year it was about understanding the Technologies of the fourth Industrial Revolution this year it's about implementing them keeping in mind that uh prosperity and benefit to all people and people are always above technology embracing these Technologies for the benefit of the people is our challenge I I agree with what all the panelists have said and you know clearly uh the foundation of education and Innovation entrepreneurship but I also think we have an obligation to go back and uh you know one very uh tangible thing we can do is is really talk about biases everyone has biases and you know how do we um if once you realize you have them then you you know you can start to look and and see people in a different light and uh you know work with Cheryl Samberg and lean in on understanding bias it's it's training now we're doing at General Motors to improve our business but I think it it expands because once you you start to see that in yourself it it I think it expands to not only you know where you work but your communities and how you can you know really start to embrace different points of view so I I think you know in addition to to education we we really have to challenge ourselves everyone and there's things corporations can do from a training perspective to get people to to to have a more open View and to to to to listen and to understand others thank you chairman Shu yeah uh last here we uh still GD uh has uh uh done two things mainly one is a renewable energy development uh in our uh company we have over 2 200 megawatt renewable energy uh part of uh 1.3 uh 130 uh megawatt for the V power and over 700 uh megawatt for the solar power that's uh our last year efforts the second one is a uh rural electrification so we have a people uh to have a more reliable power supply but for this year we we focus focus on the one belt one road one belt one road uh initiatives we will uh uh cooperate cooperate with uh neighbor countries and and some other uh and the other countries uh for the infrastructure connectivity that's how uh this year I uh Focus thank you very much I think tonight's discussion and your comments and questions really highlight that in some countries of the world particularly what some would call Western democracies there has been a mutiny but in others there has not been and those are the countries that as it were are still focused on delivering more and better just as chairman Shu and Mukesh and Vishal have pointed to but I think in all of these countries there is still a lesson from the last year and I'd just like to come back to that as a rally and call for this year's Davos which is that citizens are not just consumers you can't just deliver to them whether it's in Chinese factories or on the streets of India fighting corruption whatever it is or whether it's the young disaffected unemployed men in Europe who are joining terrorist organizations why a huge part is a sense a human need to belong and a human need to be heard and if humans are not belonging to their National Community or the narrative that their government sets for them they will find others and those others will jeopardize a lot of what most of us care about so I think it's for daros this year to to bring all of this Innovation these ideas about how you bring people with you Mary's ideas about how to do that in GM Mark and vishal's ideas about the values that you can that you can bring behind that uh Mukesh and chairman shu's ideas about the way they're delivering better we need to bring all of that Innovative energy to really thinking about how we can support communities locally and nationally to to create a system in which people feel they belong and feel that they're being heard now you could say I would say that I'm the dean of a school of government but government is absolutely Central to that because it's governments that use words that create narratives which either help people feel they belong help them feel they've got a voice or don't and I think that's the Innovation I'd love to see come out of Davos but could you join me in thanking um and appreciating each of our panelists for terrific contributions this evening thank you [Applause] all

Channel: World Economic Forum

Views: 232,347

Keywords: world economic forum, WEF, Davos, Davos 2017, 4IR, industrial revolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution, private sector, leadership, politics, futurist, political, China, Oxford, University of Oxford, society, AI, artificial intelligence, India, populist, populism, demonetization, democracy, Modi

Id: XwIQLLbD7SI

Length: 59min 23sec (3563 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2017