The Mobile of artificial intelligence

This year the magic word at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is artificial intelligence (AI). In an edition where the goal of 100,000 attendees is expected to be surpassed again, AI is heard in the hallways, with IBM salespeople shouting like in a market about the benefits of applying it in industry, and it is seen in the stands, with many wordplays to say that it is not only artificial but also personal (Xiaomi) and secure (LG). Whether AI accelerates the future (SK Telecom), or if it ignites innovation and growth (Microsoft). If a year ago the main entrance of the congress, the one located at the Ferrocarrils station through which most congress attendees access, was dominated by Xiaomi's connected car, this edition has been taken over by accelerated AI for telcos from Nvidia.

Amidst so much grandiloquence, what all this ultimately translates into are somewhat more practical and by no means dystopian functions. As can be seen at the China Telecom exhibit, with an AI capable of simultaneously transcribing a call, even adding subtitles. Other applications include recording a meeting and summarizing it, shaping it and highlighting the requested ideas, which Apple, the historically great absentee from the congress, also does. Obviously, differentiating the voices of the participants. It can even configure a to-do list for you. In China, they are already concerned about whether scammers are impersonating someone's image with AI to ask a acquaintance for money, as now happens here with SMS messages requesting a transfer because a family member has lost their phone. During the video call, a red alert warns if the image is fake, even if it looks very much like your mother.

Honor goes a step further, with its phones being able to skip TikTok videos with just a hand movement, in case one is cooking and their hands are dirty, unable to touch the phone and scroll the screen. But, of course, many times AI, at a user level, will have a more routine application, such as being able to erase that friend who is no longer one in a photo or the whole crowd of people at a tourist attraction, now that everyone goes to the same places and always wants to have their own photo. Also, improving a blurry photo. In the case of Galaxy, if one sees that they are off-center in the image, it allows modifying it and placing oneself where it is believed to be more harmonious. And, if one doesn't know how to draw, their phones are capable of converting shaky sketches into somewhat more dignified creations.

As in any exhibition, what is different is what ends up getting most of the flashes, so this year it was time to imagine how AI could be funny. China Unicom, one of the brands making its debut with its own stand in this edition, transforms attendees, with just a selfie, into one of the most famous emperors in its history, with quite acceptable results. As a good Chinese telecommunications operator, its phones work with DeepSeek. For Honor, it consisted of making a pair of robots dance to the rhythm of songs like Blinding Lights. With a live band, a pair of Boston Dynamics robots were seen vibrating with The Weeknd, raising their hands, kneeling, and spinning in ways only seen at certain hours of the night.

With Boston Dynamics' robots more than assimilated, even often ignored due to how many times they have been seen, the state telecommunications company of the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has once again opted to invite a talkative robot. After Amica hogged all the spotlights a year ago, the exhibitor has decided to return with her sister, named Amira. This time, she is dressed like the rest of the hostesses at the stand; she says it's a "less robotic" style. Capable of remembering a face, she answers questions and interacts with congress attendees. If no one talks to her and they only record her, she seems out of place and ends up looking at her nails. In the Spanish Pavilion, there were also robots, with a virtual assistant explaining what can be visited in Barcelona, with recommendations like Razzmatazz or L'Ovella Negra.

Although what is to come seems like a mix of practicality and futurism, it must be said that it also quite resembles everyday life, even the past, when exhibitors like ZTE resorted to hostesses dressed as devils in miniskirts, an image that a decade ago was too common at MWC and GSMA tries to avoid. At a technology congress like Mobile, many technologies end up being applied to sectors as old as mobility and security. An example is the car presented by Nokia, equipped with technology that allows it to be driven remotely thanks to 5G. An application that can serve to generate new business opportunities for traditional companies such as car rental, allowing vehicles to be picked up without having to move any worker, controlling everything from central offices. There are also Qualcomm's AI glasses, allowing you to notify your contacts if you are in the middle of a traffic jam.

AI has strongly entered TP-Link's business cameras, now capable of detecting if someone leaves a suspicious object or tracking the path taken by an unauthorized person. At home, through the Tapo brand, the new technology allows differentiating humans from animals, in case you have a cat that keeps setting off the alarm. Even the Mossos d'Esquadra have joined the trend, with an avatar capable of registering a complaint by exchanging a couple of messages with the applicant.

A national and international thermometer

It is always said that Mobile is the thermometer of many things, and you don't have to look far to confirm it. Before entering, a protest in favor of Gaza and another with health technicians from the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), on strike until next Saturday. With no metro or taxi driver strikes on the horizon, once inside, the clashes between Trump and Europe are experienced on a stage where the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States, Brendan Carr, has criticized the European Union's (EU) new Digital Services Act because he believes it can censor American tech companies. "It is incompatible with freedom of expression," the Republican official said before the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, who defended that AI must be ethical. In the open-air space between pavilions 3 and 5, Elon Musk's Starlink looks quite desolate.

Closer to home, King Felipe VI visited the Government's stand at the congress after eight years. The controversies over whether the President of the Generalitat and his ministers would receive him or not have also been forgotten.