Dev Wadhwani

Hi, guys, my name is Dave Wadhwadi, and I’m joining today from Dubai. My background is finance and economics. I’ve been a hedge fund manager on Wall Street for 11 years. And I now run a global e-commerce business based out of Dubai in Hong Kong.

And to answer your question: AI is so advanced. It can actually ravage a lot of employment, which will destroy society because, understand, society and the economy runs on consumption. And consumption basically happens only when a person is employed and they have a job. So you see how these things are all interlinked? 

So there's no point saving money, being so efficient, and then putting thousands of people out of work - and then they can't spend any money. So you understand the balancing act. So it's a socio-economic question, actually. 

We cannot compete with AI. AI is perfection. It is absolute perfection. Just look at your day-to-day life. You don't need to be an economist, guys. Okay? You don't need to be an economist, you don't need to be a PhD or anything like that. 

Today, let's say, you go to the movie theater. Where do you buy your ticket from? From a kiosk. That's not even AI. That’s a simple technology. 

So let's start with software by itself. These technology apps. So you strive: how many people are employed over there? And today, you've got, like, barely one help counter or two help counters and then you have a whole bunch of kiosks. Job’s gone. 

Go to the airport. Your check-in, again, is on a kiosk now, you don't go to the counter anymore. It’s not even there. You have yourself to check in. How many jobs gone? 

When I started my career buying and selling stocks, I used to call a broker to execute. Today, they would be laughing at you if you even... The whole brokerage line has gone, gone for a toss, there are no stockbrokers anymore. 

So it's a double-edged sword, guys. It's a double-edged sword. And the kind of advances AI has gotten, human beings cannot compete with it. If you look at the medical space, robots will be doing surgeries. I mean, these surgeons will be put out of work. Guys, surgeons! 

You look at the legal profession. In the legal profession, I don't know if you all know about it, but research is the most important thing. Lawyers spend countless hours researching. AI can find you what you need, like a needle in the haystack. It is so efficient! So basically lawyers may soon be out of work because the best way to win a case is what you call legal precedent.

Now we're getting to the crux of the matter. I don't know whether you’re aware, but a few years ago, the IMF actually published a document that actually confirmed that the top one percent actually owns ninety-nine percent of the planet. That's one percent, so let's say, we have seven billion people. Seventy million people own 99 percent of everything. Ninety-nine percent! 

I mean, that's a pretty scary stat, isn't it? It scared the hell out of me. You know, people give this number, you know, 80, 20, 91, it's actually the case. But you know what? That's like a fairy tale compared to the next step. Out of the one percent, at that time, forty-two people own half of everything. I don't know about you, but it’s just ridiculous. It's a reality. And that 42 today I shrunk to under 25. 

You see, I live in a place called Dubai. Many of you also live in Dubai. What is the tax rate in Dubai? Officially zero, correct. But, you know, we all pay tax. It's called the hidden tax. You could live in Switzerland, you could live in the Channel Islands, you could live in Dubai, you could live in Monaco. There's one tax every human being pays. Cannot escape it. It's inflation. So because the value of money is going down, because of constant printing and printing and printing, the buying power of the money, starting with the US dollar, the greenback, diminishes every year, the value goes down. So inflation is something that's eating into ordinary society. 

What scares me more is... Again, you don't have to be an economist, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. You have a job market. .., you have a population that's increasing. We are now at seven billion on this planet. Soon we'll be at 10 billion. So we have a population that's increasing, and we have a job market that is shrinking. You do the math. 

Second is, how are we going to feed seven billion people? 

Apart from all the stuff we've spoken about, the most important: we have to look after this planet. I’m not an environmentalist, I'm a pragmatic thinker. If this planet isn’t our own, what are we discussing? Well, like what I said, in my think greed and fear is the bane of humanity. People are negotiating, governments are negotiating at the climate accords. Negotiating! 

What are you negotiating? There's nothing to negotiate, guys. One day we won't be around. Then you can negotiate with yourself after that.