- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will join key executives from Microsoft, DeepMind and Google on Thursday as the secret Bilderberg meeting begins.
- Artificial intelligence will be a key focus of talks between representatives of the business and political elite in Lisbon, Portugal.
- The annual Bilderberg event is steeped in mystery, with discussions taking place behind closed doors and under Chatham House rules.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is one of several business and political leaders who will be attending the annual Bilderberg gathering in Lisbon, Portugal.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, will join key executives from the likes of Microsoft and Google for a secret meeting of business and political elites in Lisbon, Portugal this week.
Artificial intelligence will be high on the agenda when the ChatGPT boss meets with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, DeepMind boss Demis Hassabis and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the annual Bilderberg meeting.
The tech titans will be joined by political heavyweights including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kubela for a series of talks on international relations, trade, energy and finance.
A total of around 130 participants from 23 countries will take part in the private meeting – a similar number as in previous years. Also present will be Pfizer boss Albert Bourla, BP boss Bernard Looney, TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanne, investor Peter Theil and a number of EU politicians.
The three-day event, which runs from May 18th to 21st this year, is full of mysteries. The secret talks take place behind closed doors and are governed by Chatham House rules, which means the speakers’ identities and affiliations cannot be revealed.
This has led to conspiracy theories similar to those leveled against high-level meetings like the World Economic Forum in Davos, claiming that participants want to establish a “new world order”. However, the organizers of the event say the discreet nature of the event is intended to allow for greater freedom of discussion.
The main topics for discussion from this year’s gathering were released by the organizers on Thursday, giving an insight into what they see as the most pressing issues in global affairs:
- AI
- banking system
- China
- energy transition
- Europe
- Tax Challenges
- India
- industrial policy and trade
- NATO
- Russia
- Transnational Threats
- Ukraine
- US leadership
The talks come at a time when the launch of artificial intelligence tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have fueled growing concerns about the technology’s rapid evolution, with Altman called on Tuesday to testify before the US Senate .
Meanwhile, the ongoing war in Ukraine and concerns about the growing threat from China have become a source of ongoing debate among Western leaders, with signs of division in US and European politics intensifying in recent months .
The Bilderberg meeting was launched in 1954 for the 69th time to “promote” the “dialogue” between Europe and North America.
Today, about two-thirds of participants come from Europe and the rest from North America, about a quarter from politics and government and the rest from other fields, the website said in a statement. About a fifth are women.
And as always, discretion is key. Participants attend as individuals and not in an official capacity, and no official detailed agenda is announced, nor are the discussions subject to reporting.
“The Bilderberg meeting is a forum for informal discussion on important issues. The meetings will be held under the Chatham House Rule which states that participants are free to use the information obtained but not to disclose the identity or affiliation of the speaker(s) “Any other participant may be disclosed”, the organizers said in a press release on Thursday.
The event is organized by the Bilderberg Meeting Foundation, which is itself governed by a rotating steering committee, and is funded through a variety of sources. There is no entry fee for the event, however participation is by invitation only and participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.
“The annual contributions of the steering committee members cover the annual costs of the small secretariat. The Secretariat’s budget is limited to staff and administrative costs. The cost of hosting the annual meeting is the responsibility of the host country’s steering committee member(s),” the website said in a statement.