Trump, AI at Davos: Living history — and the future
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Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing the White House for Davos, Switzerland, where he was scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum, on Jan. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu
DAVOS, Switzerland — In a 24-hour span in the Swiss Alps, we're witnessing what future historians might mark as a hinge moment: The people building civilization-altering AI, a prime minister declaring America's global order dead, and an expansionist, defiant American president all sharing the same tense global stage.
Why it matters: It's hard to overstate the seismic shifts shaking this week's World Economic Forum in Davos.
- First, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei bluntly warned of vast job loss and absurd concentration of wealth as AI capability escalates. With the tech world enthralled by his Claude Opus 4.5, Amodei slammed President Trump for allowing China to buy American chips.
- Then at the Davos podium, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a historic rebuke to the U.S. under President Trump, declaring the rules-based order led by America "a pleasant fiction": "This bargain no longer works."
- That was before Trump addresses Carney and world leaders in Davos today, then holds a reception with Amodei and other top American CEOs.
The big picture: We've covered a lot of "historic" moments that turned out to be noise. This week feels different.
- The people building the most powerful technology ever created are saying — calmly, matter-of-factly — that it gets smarter than us very soon.
- America's closest ally, Canada, is publicly breaking away. And all of it lands on one Alpine town, at one moment, while the most powerful person on Earth prepares to speak.
What's next: With European leaders before him, Trump is expected to demand that Greenland be handed over to America by Denmark, a NATO ally, with punitive tariffs threatened for nations that stand in his way.
- "Greenland is imperative for National and World Security," Trump wrote yesterday on Truth Social. "There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!"
- Some of America's closest allies are warning that the issue could shatter the NATO alliance, which once looked unshakable.
- Trump plans to tout American dominance, unveil housing reforms, and sign the charter for his Board of Peace — an alternative to the U.N. that critics say could rival the institution itself.
Most every conversation among the Davos elites centers on two topics: AI and Trump. The Trump conversation is mostly speculation and, among many in this crowd, trepidation. On AI, we're hearing mind-bending revelations:
- Amodei, in an interview with Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker, painted a potential "nightmare" scenario that AI could bring to society if not properly checked. He said 10 million people — 7 million in Silicon Valley, with the rest scattered — could "decouple" from the rest of society, enjoying as much as 50% GDP growth while others were left behind.
- Amodei told Bloomberg that Trump's decision to allow sales of advanced AI chips to China has "incredible national security implications" and is "crazy. It's a bit like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea."
- Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, said the path to human-like artificial general intelligence is becoming clearer, although there are still some "missing ingredients."
Reality check: These aren't sci-fi writers. They're leading companies that are close to building what they're describing. They're telling you the future is fast approaching, if not here.
As for geopolitics, Carney invoked Czech dissident Václav Havel's essay on life under communism — the greengrocer who puts up a sign he doesn't believe in, just to get along. Canada, Carney said, had been that grocer. He spoke of an America no longer worthy of trust or reliable partnership: "Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down."
- Last week, Carney flew to Beijing — the first Canadian PM there in eight years — and announced China has recently been more "predictable" than America. He cut a trade deal with Xi.
Between the lines: Carney ran the Bank of England. He ran the Bank of Canada. He's not a bomb-thrower. When someone like that says the old alliance is over — not pausing, not wobbling, over — that's a seismic marker.
Market mood: Investors processed all this in real time. The S&P 500 dropped 2% yesterday — its worst day since October — after Trump threatened tariffs on eight European allies over Greenland.
- A Danish pension fund announced yesterday it's exiting U.S. Treasuries over concerns about American debt.
The bottom line: Future historians won't need to reconstruct this week. They'll have the footage. The question is whether we understand what we're watching.
- Go deeper: "The great Davos divorce," by Axios' Zachary Basu and Barak Ravid.
