Is AI Stealing the Spotlight at Davos 2024?

What else is everyone talking about this morning, Davos, the World Economic Forum annual meeting is taking place as we speak. And coin desk's Chief Content Officer Michael Casey is on the ground. Michael, wonderful to see you with those beautiful mountains behind you. Uh It, it is, it's, it's great to be II I feel a little lonely. I wish, you know, the the full coin desk team were here with me like we did last year. So hopefully next weekend I'll be here, but I wasn't going to bring it up. I wasn't going to bring it up. Look next time, next time for sure. It's been fun. Yeah. OK. Let's talk about what's happening at the World Economic Forum. I heard that crypto is taking a back seat to A I this year. Talk to us about some of the conversations that are happening on the ground. Yes, definitely taking a backseat to A IA I is consuming everybody's, I mean, the promenade is full of signs saying, you know, every tech company out there claiming to be the A I for Humanity Solution, right? Uh There are talks everywhere about this, obviously in the congress is A is a big conversation about like regulating A I. Um you know, but iiiii, I personally think that these things should not be considered mutually exclusive. Um You know, that in fact, some of the, the uh events that we've been going with the crypto community has been holding A I conversations trying to further the idea that um you know, if ever there were a use case for, for Blockchain, it, it's this one right, that this idea that we need provenance of the data that the is a there, there may be a way to prove uh the history and and provenance and therefore trustworthiness of digital information in an age of, of deep fakes, etcetera, etcetera. These are, these are things that actually a lot of blockchains are built for. Uh and that, and that, you know, a lot of folks are sort of looking to build like these decentralized data sourcing concepts for so that all of that's out there. Um It's not necessarily getting the attention of the broad establishment. Um I think most people still think, you know, crypto is all just about the tokens. Um But you know, there is amongst the community, at least here. It's clear there's an effort to try to raise the conversation to a point where, you know, maybe regulators will start to listen and see that. In fact, in this case, they ha they have something to bring to the table uh that, that maybe a solution for them. I'm always interested to hear about what's driving the crypto conversation at the World Economic Forum in years prior. There's been a real focus on stable coins and CBD CS. It sounds like now there's a focus on this convergence of tech A I and Blockchain. But what about the ETF has that come and any more? I, I think the conversation amongst the crypto community is that convergence. It's definitely not what's happening at the web itself. But the, we f yeah, there's a little bit of talk about the ETF, I mean, it was such a big story. Um You know, and you know, we, we, we tomorrow, in fact, we'll have an interview with, with Michael. So trying to give us a take on gray scale take on all this. Um But I think really actually interestingly um the, the, the official, like the the establishment look is tokenisation, that's the big word. So you've heard, you know, Larry Fink who's been on every uh you know, news media outlet here. Um Yeah, talking about the ECF, of course, cos that was a big story for, for Blackrock. Ah But here is the Ceo of Blackrock, Larry Fink now almost shifting the narrative and talking about tokenization tokenisation is going to uh you know, bring all new efficiencies to financial markets and so forth. And so we're seeing some panels on that at the actual Congress, the World Economic Forum. Um And with people like that, you know, raising the conversation. It, it certainly brings that idea uh forward and you've got, you know, Stella who uh are, are sort of touting themselves as a player in this. And they're a, a common presence in Davos. You have had hash graf who is also sort of looking at that, but probably also just importantly, the guys from Casper labs, um who are building, you know, solutions for it. You know, it it's there's a number of people here who are, are are quite excited by the idea that um tokenisation is, is the, is the next big wave Michael. The theme of the show today is regulation. We have former CFTC chair, Chris Carlo and SEC Commissioner Hester Purse joining us in just a little bit over at the World Economic Forum. What's the outlook on regulation? I mean, I I think there is um I mean, everybody in the the crypto space of course is, is talking about um whether or not the S ECs uh approval, you know, is a sea chains of some sort like whether or not there will be an approval for uh uh an EVTF following up with this, for example. Um And I think the conclusion still is that it was a very begrudging uh you know, approval, you know, we, we all read the statement that came from the SEC, you know, they almost read like uh yes, they are approved but we're holding our nose in doing so and you really shouldn't invest in crypto anyway. Um, so I think, you know, people aren't after all of this time necessarily, you know, holding their breath for a change of tune from, from Gary Gansler and from the SEC. Um, but at the same time it, the, the, the message that does seem to emerge is that the judiciary has played a key role, right? These, these lawsuits grace scale's victory again, uh uh in, in the ETF of course, um you know, Ripple's victory, Brad Garlinghouse is a, is a, you know, ceo of Ripple is a regular appear here uh uh at Davos and was walking around like he's uh uh uh you know, a bit of a success story in this. Um and we've got, uh you know, this, this idea that um ultimately the courts uh recognized the, the need to rein in the sec on some of this stuff and that, that I think people see as a source of hope that in fact, ultimately, things will get a bit better but it's an election year. So, you know, it, it, it's, it's no one's looking for stable coin regulation. That was a conversation that came up yesterday and one of the panels I was involved in, they all know it has to happen. You know, Europe is moving forward. Uh Singapore is moving forward, Japan has moved forward on this Hong Kong that it's gonna take at least another year or so until something concrete can get done in a dysfunctional congress in the middle of an election. Ok, Michael, we're gonna let you get back to it. Thank you for joining Chris over this morning. Follow all of our World economic Forum coverage on coindesk.com. That was Coin Desk's Chief Content Officer, Michael Casey.