Economic leaders from G20 countries are concerned about potential risks associated with AI use, but seem more fearful of economic risks than cyber risks.

This is according to new research from the World Economic Forum which published its annual Executive Opinion Survey, which interviewed 11,000 business executives across G20 member states.

In the survey, leaders were questioned on the top five biggest threats they anticipated in the next two years.

Business leaders cited an economic downturn as the biggest threat to their nation’s stability, which was followed by labour and talent shortages, and inflation.

These three reflected the ongoing fallout of the cost-of-living crisis and its associated economic woes on businesses.

The latter two most pressing threats included poverty and inequality, as well as extreme weather events.

Weather events moved up as severe wild fires engulfed major areas of some G20 countries such as Brazil, Germany, Indonesia and the US.

This greatly contrast’s WEF’s report from earlier this year which cited misinformation and disinformation as the number one threat, and cybersecurity in fourth.

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The report from earlier this year may have reflected the anticipation of global elections, with online tech platforms putting out safeguards to protect the public from misinformation and deepfake campaigns.

The threat of cybersecurity issues is still ranking highly in some Western countries, potentially reflected by the proliferation of AI in the nations, as well as their geographic location largely sparing them from disastrous weather events resulting from climate change.

Adverse affects of proliferating AI technologies was cited as a major threat by the UK (4th), US (3rd), and Canada (5th). Indonesia ranked AI threats as their top threat concern.

For Europe, business leaders listed labour/talent shortage, economic downturn, and inflation as their top three, with involuntary migration and misinformation and disinformation rounding out the top five.