Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray touted the collaboration between the FBI and the private sector at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
He was speaking on a WEF panel about national security alongside journalist Gideon Lichfield, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Gecko Robotics CEO Jake Loosararian.
Lichfield asked Wray about infrastructure vulnerability to cybersecurity attacks due to remote access and computerization. The context was the Russian war against Ukraine and alleged Russian cyberattacks taking out parts of the Ukrainian power grid.
FBI Director Wray at Davos:
“the level of collaboration between the private sector and the government, especially the FBI has made significant strides”Our federal agencies are “collaborating” with the private sector in narratives and operational success. pic.twitter.com/quvindMlCA
— Michael O’Fallon – Sovereign Nations (@SovMichael) January 19, 2023
“I think the sophistication of the private sector is improving and particularly important, the level of collaboration between the private sector and the government, especially the FBI, has made significant strides,” Wray said as part of an extended responseLichfield 23 minutes into the panel.
Later in the panel, Wray raised the alarm about China’s artificial intelligence program in response to a question about how adversaries can use data collection for malicious purposes. (RELATED: US Will ‘Soon’ Have ‘Illegal Hate Speech’ Laws, World Economic Forum Panelist Tell Brian Stelter)
“When it comes to AI, you know, I am and we are deeply concerned, for example, about the Chinese government’s AI program, which doesn’t share the values I think reflected on this panel,” Wray said 38 minutes into the panel.
‘Their AI program is not constrained by the rule of law, is built on top of the massive troves of intellectual property and sensitive data that they have stolen over the years,” Wray continued.
The FBI previously collaborated with Twitter on its decision to censor the Hunter Biden laptop reporting by the New York Post, according to the “Twitter files” reports. FBI agents frequently flagged accounts for Twitter to censor and the bureau paid the company $3 million to reimburse Twitter for its work processing the FBI’s requests, journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger reported.
The World Economic Forum is an annual gathering of global elites taking place from Jan. 16-20 in Davos, Switzerland. Wray is part of a U.S. government delegation invited to speak at the forum.