Regulations, environmental costs, impact on artistic creation: the upheavals of artificial intelligence (AI) will be dissected at the Web Summit, the high mass of the digital economy, which opens this Monday in Lisbon.
Already having editions in Brazil, Qatar and Canada, the Portuguese edition of the event which will take place until November 14), most often called the “Davos of geeks”, must welcome more than 70,000 participants, including 3,000 start-ups and 1,000 investors. Last year, several tech companies, including Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) boycotted the event in reaction to controversial remarks by its co-founder, the Irishman Paddy Cosgrave, on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. After apologizing and resigning from his position, Mr. Cosgrave finally took over the reins of the Web Summit, one of the world’s leading tech events. A closed episode, according to the organizers. “We really felt the effects in 2023 but in 2024 (the big names in tech) all participated in our events and debates,” Ricardo Lima told AFP, specifying that “IBM, Adobe, Meta, Huawei, SAP, Qualcomm” will be present in Lisbon.
Cristiano Amon, boss of Qualcomm, an American specialist in mobile technologies and processors for smartphones, as well as Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, will present their vision of the future of generative AI. This technology, capable of producing all kinds of content on a simple request in everyday language, burst onto the international scene two years ago with the launch of ChatGPT by the American company OpenAI in which Microsoft invested some 13 billion dollars. Shaking up our relationship with work, industry but also the creative sectors, this technology will be at the heart of the majority of interventions. Gabriele Mazzini, one of the authors of the European regulation on artificial intelligence, which came into force in August but most of the measures will not apply until 2026, will come in particular to discuss the challenge of balancing innovation and limitations possible deviations.
The screenwriter and director of the British series “Peaky Blinders” Steven Knight will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the world of cinema and series while the British singer Imogen Heap will explain how AI can be used as a tool to musical creation. The climatic consequences of the rise of this very energy-intensive technology will also be examined during conferences with evocative names such as “Protection or catastrophe? AI and the environment” or “The insatiable energy appetite of AI”. Among the other headliners: the singer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams, the boss of the dating application Bumble, Lidiane Jones, and the president of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Kuo Zhang.
