Mobile World Congress returns to Barcelona, the world’s technology capital.
Barcelona became the world capital again technologies. As every end of February for 18 years, with the exception of the 2020 pandemic, a new edition took place in the Catalan capital Mobile World Congress (MWC), one of the industry’s benchmark exhibitions, with an eye on the latest developments in mobile phonebut also in strategy cameramennetwork deployment 5G and especially in development artificial intelligence (AI).
The tech industry buzzword was present in every corner of the venue. Gran Via from Barcelona Fair, located in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Everybody’s talking about AIhow to integrate it into the company and its possible impact on the society of the future. GSMAtelephone industry employer and organizer IEC, is aware of the passions it awakens. Perhaps that is why the two highlights of the first day of the congress were Microsoft And Googletwo business giants are vying for leadership in this new market.
“AI is the greatest invention since the printing press,” he emphasized. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft. His company has invested more than $12 billion in OpenAIcreator ChatGPTand is leading the commercial implementation of this technology. If last week Smith announced investments of more than $5 billion in Spain and Germany, this Monday he made public his connection with Mistral AI, a promising French startup that never stops growing. Microsoft doesn’t want to put all its eggs in one basket, which is why it’s looking to diversify its bet and turn to European rival OpenAI.
Government bets on “technology”
In addition to executives, analysts and journalists, the congress was also attended by government officials such as King Philip VIChairman of the Government, Pedro Sanchezand the “president” of the Generalitat, Pere Aragones, who met early in the morning to open the MWC for adults in Barcelona. At the traditional welcome dinner on Sunday, Sanchez announced the creation of a great fundamental language model. The AI was trained in Spanish and other official languages of the country, such as Catalan, Basque or Galician.
In the middle of the day, Minister of Digital Transformation Jose Luis Escrivaannounced that next week the Spanish executive will adopt a plan to create a public company with up to 20 billion euros to invest in technology companies.
Telecoms are organized
First day MMC 2024 ripped out of my hands Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, Chairman of the GSMA Council. Also executive president of Telefónica. noted that a total of 47 operators and 239 networks, accounting for more than 65% of global mobile connections, have signed up for Open gatewayan initiative launched by Mobile last year to transform its networks into major digital services sales platforms.
Difficult day
In its early stages, the fair again showed signs of recovery. The GSMA is so optimistic that its CEO John Hoffman, assured that this first day of MWC was “probably” the busiest in its history. The organization hopes that more than 95,000 people can attend the event, which would be the best attendance since the health crisis. Although there are no data available at the moment, the monumental place where the technology exhibition takes place has become more vibrant and vibrant since the pandemic than in two editions. The bustle of “networking” could be seen in the halls 4YFN (4 years later), an event that brings together entrepreneurs,”startups‘ and investors.