Last month, I participated in the Global Technology Retreat (GTR24) hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in San Francisco, CA. As a Global Shaper Alumni and former elected curator of the GSC Hyderabad Hub (an initiative of WEF), I was invited to engage with a group of leaders from business, government, and academia, including board members and senior executives, part of the global network of 19 independent national and thematic centres.

During this conference, I took my first-ever driverless autonomous car ride in San Francisco. It was both eerie and fascinating, like something straight out of a science fiction movie. It amazed me how seamlessly advanced technology is integrated, with a user-friendly experience up front, sophisticated systems operating quietly in the background, policy and regulation catching up with it, and people trusting their lives with it!

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
—Arthur C. Clarke.

At the GTR24, the discussions centred around the convergence of Technology, Regulation, Policy, and Digital Trust, emphasizing governance, data/ privacy, safety, security, and accessibility.

Future Internet, Emerging Technology, Digital Inclusion and Digital Trust were a few topics of my interest. My conversations were extended around two particular topics: Digital Trust and Inclusion.

Digital Inclusion

Representing Interleger Foundation and my city, Hyderabad, I participated in discussions on the Future of the Internet and Digital Inclusion, particularly my conversations around Digital Financial Inclusion, exploring what policies, principles and practices are needed to foster an open, inclusive and trusted interoperable internet. Emphasising how the inclusive innovation of interoperable payment protocols can strengthen global commerce and its benefits for people, fostering inclusive and sustainable practices.

Despite rapid technological progress, 2.6 billion people are still not connected to the internet. This digital divide risks exacerbating existing inequalities. We discussed shared principles for business and government collaboration to ensure digital connectivity, inclusion, and concurrent adoption of emerging technologies.

Here is a white paper on shared principles for an Inclusive Finance System by WEF.

The Big Picture: Explore and monitor how the Digital Economy impacts economies, industries and global issues using this interactive navigator: https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb0000001SH21EAG.

Digital Trust

Digital trust is the expectation that digital technologies and services will protect stakeholders' interests and uphold societal values. The Forum’s digital trust framework emphasizes leadership commitment to cybersecurity, privacy, transparency, redressability, auditability, fairness, interoperability, and safety. This framework provides a roadmap for becoming more trustworthy in technology use and development.

Another deeply resonating topic was building trust in the next generation of innovative technologies. Would you still ride in an autonomous car, knowing it might face ethical dilemmas like the classic trolley problem? How can we build trust among new internet users accessing digital payments? It was intriguing to see how countries like Dubai are making strides in autonomous policy.

According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, 39% of people think innovation is poorly managed, compared with only 22% who think it is well managed. At a time when trustworthy innovation is more important than ever, reversing the trend of increasing mistrust demands a whole-of-society approach.

For further details, refer to the Forum’s report: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Earning_Digital_Trust_2022.pdf

Convergence and governance for sustained growth

Technology is revolutionizing global commerce. Digitizing the trade ecosystem could boost trade by nearly $9 trillion by 2026 within the G7 alone. Economies must tap into the power of open, scalable, interoperable technologies to enhance global commerce and benefit people and the planet.

GTR24 aimed to help stakeholders harness the full potential of technological progress for the equitable and human-centred transformation of industries, economies and societies.