How The World Economic Forum Is Tackling The Dangers Of Big Tech

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.