A customer has her face scanned by a facial recognition system to pay for her purchase at a store in the century-old neighboring streets, Wuma Street and Chan Street, in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on Jan 16, 2019. [Photo/IC]

High-profile economists, scientists and business leaders gathered in Hangzhou this week to discuss a wide range of digital economy topics.

Luminaries from Nobel Laureate Sir Christopher Pissarides to world-leading economics professor Shang-Jin Wei joined a two-day discussion highlighting the one-year anniversary of Damo Academy, an Alibaba-initiated open research platform bringing together researchers and thinkers.

During the event, experts touched upon topics from whether technology will lead to job losses or liberate people from repetitive work, who benefits the most from the platform economy, as well as the moral standards for artificial intelligence.

The goal of the academy, unveiled last year by Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, is to address universal challenges faced by societies arising from the rapid development of digital technologies.

The institution issued its first report in January during the 2019 World Economic Forum, examining how digital technology can drive inclusive growth in ways previous tech revolutions have not, especially when policies and public-private sector cooperation are supportive.