Davos discusses digital wallets, AI economy

This year’s Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) is bringing not only tense trade talks between the U.S. and Europe but also discussions on digital identity operability and balancing AI regulation and competitiveness in Europe.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other organizations called for boosting standardization efforts for digital public infrastructure (DPI), including globally interoperable digital wallets. The call came on Tuesday during the OpenWallet Forum High-Level Panel, hosted by the ITU, the OpenWallet Foundation and the Swiss Confederation in Davos, Switzerland.

Different financial regulations and standards make seamless cross-border operations for digital wallets difficult. To solve this issue, the ITU and other organizations have come up with a list of recommendations, including mapping out different countries’ approaches to digital IDs, identifying open standards and technical specifications and promoting specific initiatives at the national and international levels. The efforts will require increasing collaboration and encouraging private-public partnerships, according to the panel.

“A better digital future begins not with technology, but the shared will to build it together,” says Beat Jans, Swiss Federal Councillor. “The cartographers of tomorrow don’t sketch landscapes; they design the architecture of trust.”

Meanwhile, lawmakers and business executives in Davos shared comments on AI regulation and boosting European competitiveness.

The European Union plans to take a “Europe first” approach when it comes to AI, says Stéphane Séjourné, executive vice president for prosperity and industrial strategy at the European Commission. Séjourné adds that unicorn companies will be supported to grow and scale and that the goal was to create regulations and financing to enable such companies to be competitive on a global level, CNBC reports.

Executives, however, say that the rapid growth of AI means it should not be hindered by regulation.

“The key question is how will AI regulation (be) on the global scale? The context for Europe is clear, to stay competitive there needs to be a change,” says Thomas Saueressig, executive board member at German software maker SAP.

Other executives say that Europe’s lag in AI and other technologies could result in trillions of GDP losses, according to Reuters.

Article Topics

AI  |  digital economy  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  digital wallets  |  interoperability  |  open standards  |  World Economic Forum