Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a big threat to human beings and machines are going to replace several of us in the future, Alibaba founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma said at Davos on Wednesday.

"The AI, Big Data is a threat to human beings. The AI and robots are going to kill a lot of jobs, because in the future, these will be done by machines," Ma said during a panel discussion during the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. 

"I think AI should support human beings. Technology should always do something that enables people, not disable people," Ma added.

When it comes to the responsibilities of tech giants, Ma said that Google, Facebook, Amazon and AliBaba are the luckiest companies of this century. 

"But we have the responsibility to have a good heart, and do something good. Make sure that everything you do is for the future," Ma told the gathering.

Alibaba is the world's sixth-largest Internet company by revenue.

"People like us have the money and resources and we should spend money on technology that enables people, empowers people and makes life better," he added.

The new technology will create a lot of successful people, interesting careers but, honestly, every new technology will create social problems.

"The first technology revolution caused the World War I and the second technology revolution caused the World War II and now we have the third revolution. If there is a World War III, I think that should be against disease, pollution and poverty, not against ourselves," Ma told the audience.

He said that the senior management at Alibaba has 37 per cent women.

"If you want your company to be successful, if you want your company to operate with wisdom and with care, then women are the best at work. Part of the 'secret sauce' of our success is because we have so many women colleagues," Ma said.