Pharrell Williams kicks off Web Summit tech event [Video]

One of Europe’s biggest tech events, Web Summit, launched on Monday in Lisbon with pop superstar Pharrell Williams among those taking to the stage.

The get together runs until Thursday, with some 3,000 startups pitching their products to 1,000 investors, and 70,000 visitors taking part in events and debates, according to the organisers.

On Monday, the launch event included speeches from Portuguese politicians, entrepreneurs and a discussion on artificial intelligence, which is expected to be the dominant theme of the event.

Prominent AI critic Max Tegmark, President of Future of Life Institute, renewed his warnings that humanity was doomed if it failed to pass stiff regulations before the emergence of artificial general intelligence — a notional superintelligent AI able to dominate humans.

He criticised the narrative that pitted great powers against each other in a competition to dominate the field, commenting: “It’s not an arms race between the US and …