Big tech whistleblowers do not get enough protection, the man behind the leaked Uber Files has told Web Summit.

Mark MacGann, a former senior executive with Uber, said the big technology companies had become so powerful that fines for misbehaviour were meaningless. This, he said, represented a threat to society and democracy.

He said very few big tech whistleblowers had emerged over fear about the power of these companies and because public sector-like protections don’t exist.

The summit also heard on Wednesday that Europe was falling far behind the USA when it came to artificial intelligence technology. Entrepreneur Daniela Braga said Europe needed to spend billions of euro over a protracted period if it wanted to catch up.

The chief executive of defined.ai, who is now living in the US, used her summit address to announce the launch of Accelerate AI — a project focused on developing conversational AI, such as that used by online chatbots. The venture has been 75 per cent funded by the Portuguese government and the EU’s recovery and resilience programme, which was launched in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I have been in my 22 years of career witnessing the deeper gap that Europe has been throwing against the United States in terms of AI development,” said Ms Braga. “We are 10 billion a year and 10 years behind the United States in terms of what it takes to build parity in terms of AI.”

Asked why such a gap in AI technology matters to the citizens of Europe, Ms Braga...

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