Tech-driven precision medicine, long-acting injectables, “climate-sensitive” vaccines, and mRNA therapeutics for non-communicable diseases were among the topics of discussion at this week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
“Misinformation” is also high on this year’s agenda. The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2025, released alongside this year’s annual meeting, named misinformation as the greatest global risk over the next two years.
President Donald Trump, in a speech to WEF participants on Thursday, said “misinformation” is a label used to censor people.
The meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland, focused on artificial intelligence (AI), as reflected by this year’s theme, “A Call for Collaboration in the Intelligent Age.” Over 350 governmental figures, 60 national leaders and 1,600 business leaders attended.
This year’s meeting was relatively subdued compared to previous years. Several key global figures, including the leaders of the U.K., China, France, India and Italy, were absent from the event, as were prominent figures like Bill Gates.
Speaking Thursday during the “Technology in the World” panel, sponsored by the WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said advancements in digital technology and biotechnology “are colliding” with “tremendous synergistic effects.”
Bourla said this could lead to the development of precision medicine to cure diseases like cancer. He said AI can help develop “something like a GPS-guided missile: a medicine that is very precise,” which could target specific cancer cells.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration endorsed the Stargate Initiative, focused partly on mRNA-based health solutions powered by AI.
During the same panel, Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of AI startup Anthropic, said it “is not at all crazy” to think that AI could double the human lifespan within “five to 10 years.” Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google, said the company is looking beyond tech to become “the leader in science and innovation.”
Speaking as part of the “Health and Prosperity through Prevention” panel, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said patients may soon be administered “long-acting injectable prep” semi-annually to treat those diseases.
Gavi Vaccine Alliance CEO, Sania Nishtar, says half of their vaccines are relevant to climate sensitive diseases, and that they are trying to hone their routine immunization systems
Gavi is an international public-private partnership promoting vaccination, established in 1999 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation holds one of the four permanent seats on Gavi’s board and helps fund the organization.
Bourla referred to the “massive backlash” against the COVID-19 vaccine, saying It was “maybe 10, 20% of the people.” He noted that “AI also will face the same problems” and that AI technology “will spread the disinformation about it.”
During the “Health and Prosperity through Prevention” panel, Adar C. Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, suggested that governments could have done more during the COVID-19 pandemic to implement vaccine passports.
“Governments could have come together more in a global sense to standardize regulatory policies, vaccine certificates … just to give you a few examples of what I think we can do better,” Poonawalla said.
For the second consecutive year, the WEF’s Global Risks Report highlighted misinformation and disinformation as the top global risks over the next two years. This year’s report cited a survey of over 900 “experts.”
According to the WEF, misinformation and disinformation are “a leading mechanism for foreign entities to affect voter intentions,” “can sow doubt among the general public worldwide about what is happening in conflict zones” and “can be used to tarnish the image of products or services from another country.”
The same report listed misinformation and disinformation as the fifth biggest global risk over a 10-year timeframe.
Reflecting these concerns, Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF and chairman of its board of trustees, said on Tuesday during his welcoming remarks that misinformation and disinformation are among the critical challenges the world faces during its transition to the technology-driven “intelligent age.”
1 comment:
Free flow of information has always been disdained by dictators.
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