Yes, although the real work is happening not on the slopes of Davos, but on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The location, in Presidio National Park, illustrates how the Forum and key member companies have shifted their focus in recent years to the promise and perils of emerging technologies. After all, San Francisco has become the global capital of a tech industry with companies that are as influential as countries. "The tech companies were having an increasing impact on pretty much every foreign policy issue that we were dealing with," says Zvika Krieger, who served as the U.S. State Department's envoy to Silicon Valley in the Obama administration's final year. In early 2017, the WEF recruited Krieger and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Murat Sönmez to establish its first major office outside Switzerland, bearing the ambitious name World Economic Forum Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Artificial intelligence is quickly evolving into a lifesaver. Two separate efforts in the commercial and academic arenas have inched us closer to taking a bite out of heart disease -- the world's no. 1 killer. A Stanford University team led by Andrew Ng and a Silicon Valley startup are tapping the power of AI to improve detection of abnormalities and increase the accuracy of diagnoses. Medical-device maker AliveCor, based in Mountain View, is building deep learning AI algorithms to enable people to monitor their heart rates using built-in sensors on the Apple Watch. They can even alert people to take an immediate EKG using an Apple Watch app and a specially designed band with a built-in sensor.

Why not being actively involved in AI carries risks for government agencies (and us all) and what to do about it. A few months ago I introduced Alexa into my home – the voice controlled AI system made by Amazon. For those of you living in the US, UK or Germany this may not seem a big feat, and perhaps even somewhat late given that Alexa was first introduced in 2014, but outside of its designated markets, Amazon is still actively discouraging people from using it. I cannot buy an Alexa device, such as the Echo, on Amazon as it won't ship to the Netherlands. And the app that is required to install and use it is geoblocked in my appstore – quite meticulously I might add. For a company who se main purpose is to sell stuff, I find this quite odd. Nonetheless I have been able to get it up and running, and my Echo Dot has re-joined the fast growing population of Alexa devices. Amazon announced a couple of weeks ago that Alexa devices such as the Echo Dot had been the best-sel ling products overall during last year's holiday season, selling more than 20 million of them.

By all accounts, "Maple Valley" is thriving. Based on available data to date, it is estimated that funding raised by Canadian AI companies in 2017 will exceed US$250 million, representing an almost two-fold increase from the previous record historical high of US$143 million in 2015.[ii] This healthy injection of private-sector funding has been accompanied by significant public investment. Notably, the 2017 federal budget provided for C$125 million in research and development funds earmarked for AI initiatives and nearly C$1 billion over 5 years to promote innovation superclusters.[iii] Access to unprecedented levels of capital, a strong network of academic institutions, improving infrastructure and availability of talent facilitated by open immigration rules have fuelled the development of a burgeoning industry north of the border.

In 2016, an estimated 65.6 million people across the globe were forced from their homes by everything from war to human rights violations. Climate change and global warming are exacerbating the problem of displaced persons, with millions of people expected to be forced to relocate to other -- often cooler -- countries. The problem is becoming so widespread that New Zealand is even considering creating a new visa specifically for those displaced by climate change. Once they make the difficult decision to leave their home, refugees face a slew of other questions: To which country do they flee? Where in that country should they go?

This is a guest post. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE. Paul Scharre's recent article "Why You Shouldn't Fear'Slaughterbots'" dismisses a video produced by the Future of Life Institute, with which we are affiliated, as a "piece of propaganda." Scharre is an expert in military affairs and an important contributor to discussions on autonomous weapons. In this case, however, we respectfully disagree with his opinions. We have been working on the autonomous weapons issue for several years.

There are reasons to be optimistic as we begin 2018. Self-sustaining growth in the global economy and the recovery of international trade have strengthened in the last year. But certain socio-economic fissures continue to grow wider. Concerns about how intelligent technologies might further strain the social contract between people and business must urgently be addressed. As stewards of an inclusive and connected world, business leaders should consider how to harness technology to make an important and lasting difference.

Yesterday's leak might have spoiled the surprise, but DJI was still enthusiastic about unveiling its new Mavic Air drone in rainy New York this morning. While last year's Spark was all about making drones accessible to a new generation of pilots, the $799 Mavic Air is a high-performance creative machine that just happens to be incredibly small. When folded up, the Mavic Air is about as tall and wide as a smartphone -- it's so tiny, in fact, that a spokesperson had a few crammed into his vest without looking the least bit frumpy. Despite its diminutive size, the Mavic Air can float around for up to 21 minutes on a single charge. DJI claims that's the longest flight time you'll find in a drone this small.

Elon Musk has spent $72 million on homes in California. His most recent mansion was more than $24 million. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk presents the new Roadster electric sports vehicle to the media on Nov. 16, 2017 at the electric car maker's Los Angeles design center. Tesla has installed a new compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that would reward him handsomely if he can build the electric vehicle automaker into "one of the most valuable companies in the world." The plan -- delivered with Tesla's characteristic rhetorical flair for bucking corporate conventions -- would provide tens of billions in compensation to Musk if the company achieves its financial goals.

As connected devices become prevalent in our homes and workplaces, the technology to create and support a connected car ecosystem becomes ever more advanced. In fact, according to one forecast, there will be more than 380 million connected cars on the road by 2021, which, if correct, would fundamentally change the way we all live, work and drive. With the connected car having been identified as the fastest-growing technological device after the smartphone and tablet, we can only begin to imagine the range of capabilities we can come to expect in the space over the coming decade. However, what we can be sure of is that when connected cars become a regular feature in our garages and on our roads, the experience of driving and being driven for the next generation of car users is going to be a very different one to what we're used to now. Although there are numerous perceived benefits for car companies in terms of data acquisition, targeted marketing, and a range of new personalised in-car apps, products and services to offer customers, what exactly are the direct benefits to drivers and passengers in this connected automotive future?