Artificial Intelligence was on the lips of all the participants at Tech Spirit this Tuesday, the congress that has become the annual event for Barcelona's digital ecosystem since it emerged four years ago in response to the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress due to the arrival of the coronavirus.
“We are facing the biggest revolution in recent decades,” said Bernardo Hernández, investor and executive of companies such as Verse, Tuenti or Idealista, who acknowledged that, so overwhelmed he is, he now only has time to analyze the projects that are coming out. market. Investor Javier Rubió, from Galdana Ventures, pointed out “that any project that uses AI to reduce costs and provide added value will be an investment opportunity in 2024.” And entrepreneur Avi Meir, founder of Travelperk (one of Barcelona's unicorn companies, with a valuation exceeding 1 billion) said that AI represents a leap forward in customer service.
Another demonstration of the interest aroused by this technology was the attendance at the presentation by Ricardo Macieira, European head of Worldcoin, the latest project of Sam Altman, the founder of the ChatGPT platform. “Looking at this crystal ball, we are able to collect information from citizens' retinas and turn them into users of a cryptocurrency payment network,” said the person in charge during his speech, held in a majestic room at the Llotja de Mar. .
In this historic setting of the city, Tech Spirit aims to bring together the protagonists of the local ecosystem. This year, the organizing entity of the event – the Tech Barcelona association – assures that it has brought together 140 speakers who will hold 60 conferences. It does not give a number of attendees although it assures that 9,000 people have registered. It is a similar figure to that of the previous year and, judging by the influx of the first day, the impression is the same as previous years. The central courtyard is filled with sheltered attendees chatting over coffee, and three rooms in the building host conferences and meetings. Among the events of the congress, the Catalan Pitch Competition has already become a tradition, which chooses the best startup of the event with the support of Acció, the Generalitat's agency for business competitiveness.
During the day, personalities such as the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre; the fourth lieutenant of the City Council, Jordi Valls; the president of the Port of Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó and also the director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Mateo Valero, who praised the technological potential of the city.
