The year 2024 saw the global economy stabilise following the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as growth in many countries lagged pre-2020 levels. Amid a patchy recovery, more than 2 billion people were eligible to vote this year, and economic issues, particularly rising living costs, were a top concern for voters around the world. Meanwhile, governments grappled with how to regulate potentially transformational technology such as artificial intelligence, and Donald Trump's victory in the United States' presidential election heralded a sharp turn towards protectionism. Trump has indicated that he will pursue an even more aggressive version of the "America First" protectionism that fuelled his rise to power during his second stint in the White House. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to impose tariffs of 60 percent or higher on Chinese goods and a blanket 20 percent tariff on all other imports.

Positive, reliable and human-centric artificial intelligence (AI) relies on the willingness of Europe as a whole to design a balanced and inclusive governance framework that would allow it to become a leader in the development of trustworthy AI technologies worldwide. That was the main conclusion reached in the frame of the high-level workshop organised by the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) on 29 January 2020 at the European Parliament in Brussels. The first STOA event for this parliamentary term (2019-2024) drew a full house with Members of the European Parliament, European Commission leaders, academic experts and representatives of international organisations debating how to strike the right balance on AI. Harnessing the numerous benefits that the transformative power of AI can bring needs to also take account of the necessity to mitigate a number of potential risks – from hampering people's fundamental rights, such as privacy or non-discrimination – to undermining European values such as democracy, human dignity and the right to assemble. The event proved to be a timely occasion to discuss how Europe could maximise the benefits and address the challenges of AI in a human-centric way, coming only a few days before the publication of the European Commission's legislative plans on AI in the form of a White Paper on 19 February 2020.

Robots are taking our jobs. Almost everything you can learn in our current education system will be automated soon. Supply chains are in upheaval as production moves closer to the consumer and products are made by individual robots rather than rows of underpaid workers. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are threatening thousands of white-collar jobs. As manufacturing shifts away from the traditional Asian hubs, shipping lines now suffer from massive overcapacity that will probably stay for a long time. We are aware of all of these trends.

Somewhat overshadowed in recent years by China's rise as a regional and global power, Japan still extends considerable influence as a world leader in various fields, including investment, policy management and trade, according to experts who gathered at a Tokyo conference earlier this week. But at the same time, Japan lags behind other countries in incorporating into everyday life technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence and financial technology to improve efficiency, they said. "We want to talk about Japan as a role model, not Japan following, not Japan copying, but Japan actually and constructively led by the young generation," said Jesper Koll, who heads Wisdom Tree Japan KK, a Tokyo-based exchange-traded fund sponsor, in the opening session of the annual G1 Global Conference organized at Globis University on Sunday. Experts shared insights in a session titled "Can Japan be a Role Model for Global Economic Prosperity and Stability?" Hiromichi Mizuno, chief investment officer at Government Pension Investment Fund said the country can show leadership in the field of investment by educating on responsible investment, a concept that gained traction after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008 that triggered the global financial crisis, exemplifying the long-term failure of a capitalism that emphasizes the single-minded pursuit of short-term corporate profits.

Robots are taking our jobs. Almost everything you can learn in our current education system will be automated soon. Supply chains are in upheaval as production moves closer to the consumer and products are made by individual robots rather than rows of underpaid workers. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are threatening thousands of white-collar jobs. As manufacturing shifts away from the traditional Asian hubs, shipping lines now suffer from massive overcapacity that will probably stay for a long time. We are aware of all of these trends.

The technology world faces new trends frequently. New technologies typically promise to get things done faster, reduce costs, and open new market segments, thus improving the financials of a lot of firms. From Service-oriented Architecture to mobile and cloud computing, all of them stake their claim to deliver these benefits. However, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact the world economy in a way that no technology in the past was able to. This is the core thesis of Martin Ford's 2015 book, 'The Rise of the Robots', sub-titled'Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment.'

WASHINGTON – A century-old U.S. trade group on Monday pledged to work with the incoming administration to improve access to overseas markets for American companies, but also to fight against protectionism. Rufus Yerxa, head of the 300-company National Foreign Trade Council, said his organization is prepared to work with President-elect Donald Trump to improve conditions for U.S. exporters. However, he declined to be drawn into discussing some of Tump's more inflammatory statements, like threats to impose huge punitive tariffs on China and renegotiate free trade deals, saying he would wait to see what the actual policies are. "The reason I want to be optimistic is because I've seen this before, prior incoming administrations where there's a lot of dire predictions about what's going to happen, and in the end very positive things have happened," said Yerxa, a former deputy director general of the World Trade Organization. "I don't want to rule out that possibility," he told reporters. "I think we can make progress once it becomes clear to people that protectionism isn't the answer."