The World Economic Forum kicked off on Tuesday, and the theme of this year's gathering of the world's leaders, celebrities, billionaires and the merely wealthy will be what it calls the "Fourth Industrial Revolution".

That's its term for the accelerating pace of technological changes, especially those that are "blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres" — the combination of things such as artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and 3D printing.

The World Economic Forum has sought to quantify the impacts of automation and new technologies.

To go with that theme, the WEF has released research looking at the effect all that change will have on jobs. It projects that by 2020, 7.1 million jobs are expected to be lost, versus just 2 million gained.

"Davos Robot Eclipses Davos Man as Gloom Descends on World Elite," Bloomberg wrote in covering the news of this year's theme, which will be the topic of 20 sessions over the four-day conference.