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Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, at the Hope Global Forums annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. 

Dustin Chambers | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DAVOS, Switzerland — The rise of generative artificial intelligence has dominated private and public discussion at the World Economic Forum as the world’s largest technology companies, including Salesforce, Microsoft and Google, temporarily take over local storefronts as a show of force to conference attendees.

While 2023 highlighted the technology’s ability, 2024 will be about increasing the accuracy of results so that executives in high-stakes industries such as hospitals and manufacturing can get comfortable using AI, said Intel Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger in a CNBC interview.

“You’ve now reached the end of today’s AI utility,” Gelsinger said. “This next phase of AI, I believe, will be about building formal correctness into the underlying models.”

Whether it’s doctors relying on artificial general intelligence (AGI) for diagnoses, warehouses using it to check for assembly line malfunctions, or automated driving, humans need to get more comfortable with the accuracy of the technology, Gelsinger said.

“Certain problems are well solved today in AI, but there’s lots of problems that aren’t,” Gelsinger said. “Basic prediction, detection, visual language, those are solved problems right now. There’s a whole lot of other problems that aren’t solved. How do you prove that a large language model is actually right? There’s a lot of errors today. So you still need you know, essentially, I’m improving the productivity of a knowledge worker. But at the end of the day, I need the knowledge worker to say is it right.”

Pat Gelsinger, CEO Intel, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 16th, 2024.

Adam Galici | CNBC

The best way to improve accuracy is through experimentation and co-piloting tests to advance adoption, said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI. The AI can adjust to different standard deviation confidence levels as users get comfortable that the technology can be trusted in high-stakes scenarios, Shih said in an interview.

Three phases of AGI will guide adoption, Shih said. Phase one is actively using the technology as an assist for work. Phase two is consciously watching the technology in its autopilot mode to ensure accuracy. The final phase is letting go and trusting the technology will work to the confidence level of one’s choice, Shih said.

“You can tell the AI to be conservative for higher stakes until a human co-pilot essentially graduates it to autopilot,” Shih explained.

The three-phase approach, which heavily draws upon human acceptance of the reliability of the technology, should make AGI less scary than some have speculated, said Open AI CEO Sam Altman during a panel discussion Tuesday with Bloomberg’s Brad Stone.

“This is much more of a tool than I expected,” Altman said. “It’ll get better, but it’s not yet replacing jobs. It is this incredible tool for productivity. This is a tool that magnifies what humans do, lets people do their jobs better, and lets the AI do parts of jobs.”

The past year has been “a year of discovery,” said Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman in an interview. The financial industry, including Nasdaq, will use AI to update old code to modernize aging systems, improving automated workflows which can save employees hours each day, Friedman said.

“It came onto the scene a little over a year ago,” Friedman said. “We did some experimentation. We started to kind of understand the potential of it. This year will be the year of activations for us and for everyone.”

WATCH: Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman discusses economy, opportunities in AI at Davos

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on IPO outlook: Resilience in economy is giving people confidence

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India’s Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

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India's Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, arrives to pay his last respect to Indian industrialist Ratan Tata at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) ahead of its cremation in Mumbai on October 10, 2024. 

Punit Paranjpepunit Paranjpe | AFP | Getty Images

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday announced new partnerships with Google and Meta to accelerate the company’s push into artificial intelligence.

Speaking at an annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani also disclosed ambitions to list Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network, in the first half of 2026.

“A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance — the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger,” Ambani said, as he revealed a new fully owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence.

In a pre-recorded video played during the AGM, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Reliance would leverage the internet giant’s AI and cloud computing capabilities to boost innovation across sectors like energy, retail, telecommunications and financial services.

The pair will establish a dedicated cloud region in India, powered by clean energy provided by Reliance Industries and connected through Jio’s network.

Separately, Ambani also announced a new joint venture with Meta to make use of the tech group’s open-source AI models and deliver “sovereign, enterprise-ready AI for India.”

Under the new venture, Reliance Industries and Meta have committed an initial investment of $100 million to capitalize the unit in a ratio of 70% and 30% respectively, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership as “a key step forward towards ensuring that everyone has access to AI and eventually super intelligence.”

The partnerships signal a deeper push from U.S. tech names into India at a time when the country is seeing significant economic growth. It is not the first time that either Google and Meta has shown an interest in Reliance.

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, which is the parent company of Reliance Jio. Google separately announced a $4.5 billion investment in Jio Platforms that same year.

Jio Platforms owns a number of brands, including its telecommunications business Reliance Jio, which has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks to competitive pricing.

Reliance’s deeper pacts with Google and Meta come at a precarious time for U.S.-India relations. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed hefty tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

Trump’s tariffs versus India’s growth story - who wins?

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The Trump family crypto empire looks to Asia: Eric Trump talks Bitcoin in Hong Kong

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The Trump family crypto empire looks to Asia: Eric Trump talks Bitcoin in Hong Kong

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Eric Trump said Friday he is certain bitcoin will eventually hit a $1 million valuation as he spoke at a Hong Kong conference, marking the first of a series of Asian crypto events that will feature U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons.

Speaking at Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Asia 2025 conference, Eric Trump discussed his strong involvement in the crypto space.

“I really believe in the next several years, Bitcoin hits a million dollars. There’s no question,” he said, adding that 90% of his time is now spent with the crypto community. 

During his panel, the American businessman and former reality TV presenter also showered praise on Simon Gerovich, president and CEO of Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet. Eric joined the Tokyo-listed company’s board of advisors earlier this year. 

Bitcoin’s price has risen about 86% in the last 12 months amid buoyant investor sentiment surrounding President’s Trump’s election victory and a more positive U.S. regulatory environment on crypto. However, it’s worth noting that cryptocurrencies generally can be highly volatile and the space has been shrouded in the past by illicit activity and corporate scandals. In 2022, bitcoin and other digital currencies slumped sharply after a slew of major crypto companies went bankrupt.

Asia push

Eric Trump, along with his brother Donald Trump Jr, have become major players in the Trump family’s growing crypto empire. The two are co-founders of the bitcoin-mining venture American Bitcoin and also help manage the Trump family-backed project World Liberty Financial.

Now the brothers are broadening their push into digital assets to Asia. Soon after his Hong Kong visit, Eric Trump is reportedly headed to Japan to attend a shareholder meeting of Metaplanet, according to a recent report from Bloomberg News.

Later in September, both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are expected to speak at a South Korean crypto conference, and the pair is slated to appear as key speakers at Singapore’s Token 2049, one of the world’s largest crypto events.

Once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, President Trump has also embraced the crypto industry, branding himself as the first “crypto president.” 

“The Bitcoin community embraced my father unlike anything I had ever seen before,” Eric Trump said Friday adding: “And I hope that’s paid off in spades.”

The Trump administration has launched a number of executive orders and backed policies welcomed by the digital asset industry and has filled his cabinet with crypto advocates like David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar. 

Trump has also been involved in crypto business ventures, including World Liberty Financial and his $TRUMP meme coin, leading to accusations of corruption and self-dealing from opposition lawmakers, as well as calls for ethics investigations.

Given the shared interests between the American president and his son’s crypto activities, market watchers will be monitoring how the two brothers are received by government officials during their Asia tour. 

Eric Trump on taking American Bitcoin public and the family’s growing crypto empire

The visits come against the backdrop of President Trump’s ongoing global trade war, which has made Asia a major target.  

A Hong Kong official and a lawmaker withdrew from a Bitcoin Asia conference in the city following advice not to engage with Eric Trump, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

An archived version of the event webpage confirmed that Eric Yip, executive director at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and lawmaker Johnny Ng had previously been on the list of speakers for the event, before being removed. 

The SFC told CNBC that Yip was unable to attend the event because of a business trip, while the South China Morning Post reported that Ng said he withdrew for family reasons. 

The Hong Kong legislative council did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

– CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.

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Alibaba’s cloud unit shines even as rivalry heats up in China’s ‘instant commerce’ space

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Alibaba's cloud unit shines even as rivalry heats up in China's 'instant commerce' space

The Alibaba office building in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Aug. 28, 2024.

CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Alibaba posted a better-than-expected bottom line in the June quarter fueled by accelerated sales at its cloud computing unit and a continued revival of its e-commerce business.

Still, the Chinese giant’s revenues came in under analyst forecasts.

Alibaba’s stock was up around 4% in premarket trade in the U.S. after initially dipping.

Here’s how Alibaba did in its fiscal first quarter ended June, compared with LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 247.65 billion Chinese yuan ($34.6 billion), versus 252.9 billion yuan expected.
  • Net income: 43.11 billion yuan, compared with 28.5 billion yuan expected.

Revenue rose 2% year-on-year, while the company’s net income was up 78%. Alibaba attributed the increase in profit to gains in some of its equity investments and the disposal of Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol. This was offset by a decrease in income from operations.

However, excluding investment gains, Alibaba’s net income would have decreased 18% year-on-year as it continues to invest in the cut-throat instant commerce space in China.

Alibaba has a delicate balancing act between investing areas such as artificial intelligence and new e-commerce models, while showing that it can continue to grow in China’s competitive market. So far, investors have rewarded Alibaba with a 40% rally in its U.S.-listed stock this year.

That’s partly thanks a continued growth acceleration at its key cloud computing division as well as improvements at both its China and international e-commerce businesses.

Cloud accelerates

Cloud computing was one of the bright spots.

Alibaba said revenue at the division totaled 33.4 billion yuan, up 26% year-on-year. That was faster than the 18% growth rate seen in the previous quarter. Alibaba’s cloud unit is seen as key to the company monetizing artificial intelligence, much like Microsoft or Google.

“Driven by robust AI demand, Cloud Intelligence Group experienced accelerated revenue growth, and AI-related product revenue is now a significant portion of revenue from external customers,” Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said in a statement.

Investors are focused on Alibaba’s investments in artificial intelligence, where it has become a major global player. The company has aggressively launched various AI models and is selling services through its cloud computing division.

While Alibaba has focused open source AI — meaning its models can be used for free and built on by developers — it also sells AI services through its cloud unit.

Alibaba said AI-related product revenue “maintained triple-digit year-over-year growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.”

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA), a measure of profitability, jumped 26% year-on-year in the cloud unit.

New York-listed Alibaba shares have risen more than 40% this year as revenue growth at its core China e-commerce business has improved and its cloud computing division has accelerated.

The company is dealing with uncertainty in the Chinese economy, which lost momentum in July. Earlier this year, Beijing had launched initiatives to boost consumption.

‘Quick commerce’ wars

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