by 
Global technology leaders were at the annual Web Summit in Lisbon on Tuesday to talk artificial intelligence, robots and startups – all in the shadow of global tensions over cutting-edge hardware and software and the resources needed to develop them.
Visitors with lanyards explored bright blue and pink booths under a gray November sky in search of the latest developments in quantum computing or humanoid robots.
According to the organizers, the “Davos for Geeks” will welcome over 70,000 visitors from 150 countries over four days, including 2,500 startups and 1,000 investors.
Microsoft made waves on Tuesday by announcing a $10 billion AI data center it will build in Portugal with British firm Nscale.
In a statement, the company called the program “one of the largest investments in AI computing capacity in Europe.”
“Demand has become pretty crazy in the AI space, particularly in the last five months,” Daniel Bathurst, Nscale’s chief product officer, told AFP.
– China in mind –
China’s rise to technology dominance concerns many participants.
“Half of the world’s computer scientists and computer engineers who are at the forefront of these technologies are in China,” Rev Lebaredian, vice president of simulation technology at Nvidia, told AFP.
The American chip giant’s chief executive Jensen Huang warned earlier this month that China will “win” the race to master next-generation artificial intelligence.
He expects this to happen despite the fact that Nvidia’s most advanced chips – used to train and power AI systems – are unavailable in China due to export restrictions.
“If we try to exclude them, they will find a way to develop the same things,” Lebaredian said.
“We will lose the opportunity to work with them and benefit from their work.”
Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave told attendees at Monday’s opening event that “this year, more than any year before, it is clear that the era of Western tech dominance is coming to an end.”
– Robots and autonomous cars –
Leading Chinese manufacturer Unitree held demonstrations of its humanoid robots on Monday.
And a few meters away, Chinese 3D printer maker Bambulab was at its stand showing machines capable of producing physical objects in a matter of hours – itself designed based on text input to a generative AI model, rather than traditional software tools.
Such uses illustrate a transition of AI from “pure software, abstract games, into … the physical world,” Lebaredian said.
