FII8: a cerebral workout in a dumbed-down age

The eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh last week was by general consensus the most successful yet.

The organisers, expertly marshalled by Richard Attias and Princess Reem Al Saud of the FII Institute, hit just the right mix of serious content and “masters of the universe” celebrity.

The venues, the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre and the nearby Ritz Carlton hotel in the Saudi capital, make the FII an easier-to-negotiate experience than other global forums, with casual networking in synergy with the big set-piece plenary events. It even rained, to cool down the non-Arab participants.

• The elephant in the FII Plenary Hall: the US election

• Richard Attias: ‘I feel more welcome here than in France’

• PIF renews focus on domestic investment and AI 

Some sceptics say that there is no benefit in gathering together a crowd of the global elite to gossip and deliver speeches, but I disagree. The FII in Saudi Arabia is an opportunity to hear important people say interesting things, which is an increasingly rare occurrence in this dumbed-down age.

In that spirit, here are the top five things I learned from FII8, my key takeaways from a demanding week of cerebral workout:

Elon Musk is a Saudi super-hero

The Tesla billionaire took time out of a busy US electioneering schedule to share his thoughts with a packed and predominantly young audience on day one of the event – and they lapped it up. His radical-techno-visionary mindset chimes perfectly with the kingdom’s big ambitious plans under Vision 2030. This, after all, is the man who has made giga-projects his forte, from EV cars and AI through to space travel and hi-tech communications. If Donald Trump wins the presidency, expect Musk to play a big role in the US-Saudi relationship. Even if Harris wins, Musk will be a regular visitor to the kingdom.

AI is a double-edged sword

Musk thought there was only a 10 to 20 per cent chance that artificial intelligence would pose a threat to humanity, but a one-in-five possibility of species extinction is not to be laughed at. It was left to a conversation between Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of the Economist, and Eric Schmidt, leader of Google for nearly two decades, to expose the really dark side of AI, especially in the military field. A $5,000 drone can regularly beat a $5m tank, said Schmidt, who also offered up the horror scenario of mass drone attacks against civilian populations. 

The PIF’s global ambitions are only growing

This, despite the reporting of a “scaling back” of the Public Investment Fund’s international footprint, is the only logical takeaway from remarks by PIF governor Yasir Al Rumayyan. Sure, he said that PIF would reduce its global investment allocation to perhaps 18 per cent of total assets under management, but as the fund is unerringly heading towards the $2 trillion valuation set under Vision 2030, this in effect marks a big cash increase in absolute terms. This FII showed that PIF is not withdrawing into its Saudi shell any time soon.

The FII welcomes mavericks to the plenary hall

At FII7, it was Jared Kushner who provoked a storm with comments about Palestine, as the deadly bombardment of Gaza was in full force. This year it was Jeffrey Sachs, director of sustainable development at Columbia University. He sounded an apocalyptic note with comments about the failure of technology to reduce economic inequalities in the world, and attacked the global financial system for failing to invest in developing countries. “What we need are decency, mutual respect and human intelligence,” he said. You couldn’t argue with that, but it was jarring to hear amid all the technological and financial optimism.

FII can be intensely personal

I had the great pleasure of meeting Sarah de Lagarde, the “bionic woman” who lost an arm and a leg after a horrific accident but has replaced them with sophisticated AI-powered prosthetics – all on prominent display in the FII Dome. I could relate directly to her story, and the strength and resilience she displays, because her injuries are almost identical to those of my son Patrick, who suffered similarly after a childhood illness, but who has equally adapted to the bionic age with advanced prostheses. We chatted for some time about her experiences, and she promised to make contact with Patrick to continue the conversation. For me, it was the emotional highlight of FII8.

* The video accompanying this column was filmed on Friday, November 1. On November 5 the organisers of FII issued a press release stating that the total value of deals and agreements announced during the event was $62.5 billion.

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia and is a media adviser to First Abu Dhabi Bank of the UAE