A video shared on Instagram purports World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairperson Klaus Schwab openly called for artificial intelligence (AI) technology to replace democratic elections.
Verdict: False
Schwab speculated on the future impact of AI technology during a 2017 WEF event in Davos, Switzerland. He did not openly call for AI technology to replace democratic elections.
Fact Check:
The White House is backing hackers who are set to expose vulnerabilities in AI systems at this year’s DEF CON conference in Vegas, according to Politico. The conference comes amid ongoing debate over AI, including from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is addressing the use of AI in campaigns, Axios reported.
“WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab openly calls for AI technology to replace democratic elections!” text overlay on the video, liked over 2,000 times, purports. The video features a clip of Schwab speaking in which he appears to say future elections will not be needed as a result of technological advancements. A watermark included on the clip indicates it was shown during an episode of Alex Jones’ show, “Info Wars.”
The claim is false, however. While the clip of Schwab speaking did appear in an Aug. 4 episode of Jones’ show, “Info Wars,” it originates from a 2017 WEF event held in Davos, Switzerland.
The full video of Schwab speaking at the event, available via YouTube, reveals he did not openly call for AI technology to replace democratic elections.
During the event, Schwab and Google founder Sergey Brin discussed “leadership, entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” according to the video’s caption. Specifically, Schwab speculated on the future impact of AI technology with Brin.
“We don’t know yet how the technology will look like. But one fear which I have heard is, technology now is — and digital technologies — mainly have an analytical power, now we go into a predictive power,” Schwab said.
“We have seen the first examples, and your company [is] very much involved in it. But since the next step could be to go into prescriptive mode, which means you do not even have to have elections anymore because you can already predict what, predict, and afterwards you can say, ‘Why do we need the elections?’ — because we know what the result will be. Can you imagine such a world?” he added.
Likewise, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports supporting the claim Schwab openly called for AI technology to replace democratic elections. The WEF also has neither repeated the claim via its website nor its verified social media accounts. In addition, Schwab has not publicly addressed the claim. (RELATED: No, Klaus Schwab Does Not Have A Personal Logo That Looks Like The CIA’s Logo)
Check Your Fact has contacted the WEF and “Info Wars” for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.