Two Decisions And A Duel News ad

VOL. 38  NO. 8

The end of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere coincides this year with heightened expectations related to two major upcoming events. Both have been announced, but their outcome and potential consequences are uncertain: the November elections in the US and the Federal Reserve’s cut in interest rates.

The Fed and chairman Jerome Powell have recently been pretty clear: the cut—or cuts—are coming. The remaining questions are, how much and when?

The winner of the US presidential contest is hard to predict, but both major parties have generated plenty of surprises in the last few months concerning the candidates and their agendas. In a year when many major democracies are running elections and several key central banks have already lowered their interest rates, what happens in the US has consequences worldwide. Recent turbulence in the global financial markets signals precisely the magnitude of what is at stake and its potential repercussions.

In this issue, together with the announcement of this year’s Best Digital Banks and the annual Best Innovation Labs selections, we are focusing on another vital issue. Our cover story on the US-China confrontation over artificial intelligence examines the critical and very current duel between the two superpowers, detailing the specific areas of confrontation and the different approaches the two nations are taking.

Our focus is also on the potential consequences of this AI competition; we offer potential scenarios for both the near-term and long-term future. Predicting a winner is of course more difficult, but clearly the issue will become more and more relevant worldwide. Overall, we offer a rare insight into what is often—and wrongly—considered primarily a commercial war between tech giants in the US. This duel has a global nature beyond ChatGPT and its competitors.

Andrea Fiano | Editor at Large
afiano@gfmag.com