Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, held a meeting on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest annual event in the telecommunications industry, in Barcelona on February 26, 2024.
Paulo Barrena | AFP | Getty Images
The chief executives of artificial intelligence giants Google DeepMind, Microsoft AI, Anthropic and Mistral AI were among the elite business and political leaders attending a secret meeting in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday.
Following the rapid rise of emerging technologies last year, artificial intelligence will once again become the focus of discussion at Bilderberg’s annual conference.
Technology leaders will be joined by business leaders, including Citigroup former chief executive jane fraser Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, shell Chief Executive Wael Sawan and investor Peter Thiel held wide-ranging talks covering trade, finance and biology.
Politicians such as U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also participate in geopolitical discussions involving China and Russia. Political discussion.
A total of approximately 130 attendees, including former and current Prime Ministers, will attend the 70th Annual Conference private meetingthis year takes place in the Spanish capital from Thursday to Sunday.
The Bilderberg meeting is an event shrouded in mystery, with secret talks taking place behind closed doors and in compliance with Chatham House rules, which means the identities and affiliations of speakers may not be disclosed within the media or Report.
According to its organizers, the closed nature of the event is intended to promote “informal discussion of important issues.” However, the secrecy has fueled conspiracy theories similar to those targeting high-level conferences such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with critics accusing attendees of exerting disproportionate influence on society.
What is the agenda for 2024?
Organizers on Thursday unveiled the key themes for discussion at this year’s conference, providing insight into the most pressing issues on the international agenda:
- Current status of artificial intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence Security
- The changing face of biology
- climate
- the future of war
- geopolitical landscape
- Europe’s economic challenges
- U.S. economic challenges
- American political landscape
- Ukraine and the world
- middle East
- China
- Russia
The conference comes as artificial intelligence has made further rapid progress over the past year, with the release of several new large language models (LLMs) raising questions around the impact on privacy, workforce and wider society.
Elsewhere, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and growing tensions between the United States and China continue to dominate international discussions.
What is Bilderberg?
The Bilderberg Conference, established in 1954 to “promote dialogue between Europe and North America”, is now celebrating its 70th anniversary.
Today, about two-thirds of participants are from Europe and the rest from North America, with about a quarter from politics and government and the rest from other fields, according to a statement on its website.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, Monday, November 8, 2021.
Shen Ting | Bloomberg | Getty Images
As always, caution is key. Attendees were participating in their personal capacity and not in any official capacity, no official detailed agenda was disclosed, and there were no discussions to report.
“Due to the private nature of the meeting, attendees attend in their personal capacity and not in any official capacity and are not bound by their office practices or pre-agreed positions. Therefore, they can take their time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no detailed agenda , no resolution was proposed, no vote was taken, and no policy statement was issued,” a statement released Thursday said.
The event is organized by the Bilderberg Meetings Foundation, which itself is governed by a rotating steering committee and funded through a variety of means. There is no attendance fee for the event, but attendance is by invitation only and participants are responsible for their own transportation and accommodation costs.
“Annual donations from Steering Committee members cover the annual expenses of the small Secretariat. The budget of the Secretariat is limited to staff and administrative expenses. Hospitality expenses for the annual meeting are covered by the responsibility of the host Steering Committee member country,” a statement on its website added road.
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