WebSummit 2019 — notes

For the third time in a row, I’ve attended a Websummit. This event is indeed a marvelous conference for startups and techies but it is a lot more than that. At Websummit everybody has something to see, something to learn and something to share.
It is impossible to ignore that “every company wants to be a tech company”. At websummit that is obvious. Even Tommy Hilfiger has its own stand and presents itself as a tech company.
Websummit is also all about startups and entrepreneurship. Some startups come looking for funding, some come looking for partnerships and others just want to create awareness.
But not only startups are attracted to this “festival”. There are lots of Big Tech Co’s all over the venue. A big stake of the biggest companies has come to Lisbon for the event and brought the very best they have so offer and showcase.
Being at Websummit is also something of a “status affirmation”. We are here, We are disruptive, We are making thins happen out there, come and see.
This year’s summit was also about Data. Not only privacy or personal data, but data in general. Some weeks ago, in another conference, in Angola, my mentor was saying to an audience of senior telco stakeholders that everything is generating data all the time and that data is going to generate knowledge. And it is this knowledge that moves the economy…and the world, for that matter.
Data might not be the new oil, but it certainly is the fuel of the upcoming tech war.
Edward Snowden appeared at the event via videocall and questioned the effective impact of the GDPR. “The problem isn’t data protection, the problem is data collection,” Snowden said. “Regulation and protection of data presume that the collection of data in the first place was proper, that it is appropriate, that it doesn’t represent a threat or a danger.”
“It is not data that is being exploited, it is people that are being exploited” said Snowden
AI was everywhere. Everything is being “touched” by AI.

Margrethe Vestager, the “super” European Commissioner ( “Executive Vice President for A Europe fit for the Digital Age”) said on AI regulation that: “The first thing we will do is, of course, to listen very, very carefully, and we’ll try to listen fast, because as we’re speaking, AI is developing.” And added: “That is wonderful because I see no limits to how artificial intelligence can support what we want to do as humans” she continued. “Take climate change. I think we can be much more effective in fighting climate change if we use artificial intelligence.”
“I think we can save people awful, stressful waiting time between having been examined by a doctor and having the result of that examination, and maybe also more precise results in doing that. So I think the benefits of using artificial intelligence [have] no limits,” said Vestager.

“But we need to get in control of certain cornerstones so that we can trust it, and it has human oversight, and — very importantly — that it doesn’t have a bias.”
Concerning social media, namely Facebook, Vestager said: “ Maybe we should do even more. The risk is we completely undermine our democracy. Democracy is supposed to take place in the open, where our political ads can be fact-checked, contradicted, different opinions can be offered, it can be supported. But if it’s only in your feed, it’s only between you and Facebook and the micro-targeting of who you are, that’s not a democracy anymore. That is just privatizing de facto manipulation of who you are going to vote for.”
Not only European politics were discussed…
The final remarks, by Portuguese President and Social superstar Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa were also remarkable (pun intended).
De Sousa said that Websummit has been anticipating all the big discussions that have ruled the world for the last few years, giving examples of famous speakers like Hawking. Al Gore and Barnier.
De Sousa even said that at the Summit we had discussed privacy without fears or external influences. Portugal is not afraid of talk about democracy and its problems, freely.
