Web Summit 2024: What to expect in a year of elections and AI

Members of the tech elite are returning to the Portuguese capital this week as Europe’s largest technology event launches on Monday evening.

Around 70,000 people are expected to gather in Lisbon for Web Summit, a four-day tech conference hosting more than 3,000 companies and high-level speakers.

The big theme will be artificial intelligence (AI), which will have various sub-themes including regulation, sustainability, ethics, and hype.

Some of the biggest names in AI will attend, including Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft; Thomas Wolf, co-founder and Chief Science Officer (CSO) of Hugging Face; Cristiano Amon, CEO and president of Qualcomm; and Gabriele Mazzini, lead author of the EU AI Act. 

Various government officials will also be in attendance to discuss AI regulation, including Robert Habeck, the vice-chancellor of Germany; Luís Montenegro, Portugal’s prime minister; and Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister.

Creativity and AI will also be a big theme, with major celebrities joining the event such as  Pharrell Williams and Imogen Heap.

The creator of the TV show Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight will also be present as will Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of photo editing unicorn Picsart.

Creating a stir, an AI cocktail maker will also be at the conference to mix up beverages. 

Elections and social media

Web Summit 2024 comes barely a week after the United States elected Donald Trump to serve as its next president, so many of the talks could mention the election and its implications on technology and businesses.

DeRay McKesson, a Civil Rights activist and host of Pod Save The People, will speak about covering elections in an era of disinformation and public disillusionment with media outlets.

Social media will also feature highly at the conference with football legend Gilberto Silva discussing strategies for combating hate on platforms as a public figure.

Germany’s vice chancellor will also analyse social media's role in today's polarised political climate.

UN climate conference

Sustainability and clean tech companies will also be discussed as the United Nations climate summit COP29 takes place in Baku at the same time.

Companies of interest include the carbon transformation company Twelve, whose CEO Etosha Cave aims to decarbonise the aviation industry, and Bolt, whose CEO will discuss the future of cars at a time when many governments across the world are introducing measures to reduce the number of private cars on roads.

A returning CEO

Web Summit co-founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave will also be returning this year as head of the company after he stepped down a year earlier following backlash over his comments on the Israel-Hamas war.

Tech titans such as Meta and Amazon as well as celebrity speakers, such as Gillian Anderson, withdrew from the event as a result.

Former Wikipedia boss Katherine Maher took over from Cosgrave as CEO but soon left and took up a role as the CEO of NPR. 

Euronews Next will be following Web Summit with all the latest news.