South By Southwest was strange this year. No convention center to anchor the event (it’s a giant hole in the ground right now, being rebuilt from scratch, much like [insert your analogy here] will also need to be rebuilt in the age of AI).
This South By was a all about convergence. How AI will impact [xyz] continues to be the dominant theme at the conference and in so much tech coverage (including on this podcast; sorry!).
So, Kwaku and I report on the convergences we saw (and not only at Amy Webb’s annual talk where “convergence” was her key word). This includes everything from:
- the RoboCup, a quest (a la Deep Blue winning at chess) for humanoid robots to be able to defeat a team of great humans at soccer
- pants that you wear (or do they wear you) that are kind of like an e-bike for your legs
- an AI-powered Cyrano de Bergerac that can help you whisper sweet nothings in your lover’s ear
- falling in love with an AI (and their business model)
- and AI that can tell you whether to have another slice of brisket (yes, duh, you’re in Austin!)
So, come on along to Austin for what’s become an annual tradition: Kwaku and my SXSW Rooftop Revue.
This year recorded in fabulous 4K with a three camera setup that we didn’t deserve! Big thanks to Podcast Movement Evolutions, Nomono, The Podcast Academy, and Simplecast!
And stay tuned for a few more episodes from a wild week!
Chapters:
- (00:25) - SXSW 2026: everything everywhere all at once
- (01:23) - Kwaku stumbles into a World Economic Forum session on convergence
- (05:54) - Reinforcement learning and robot soccer
- (09:07) - Amy Webb's three convergences: emotional outsourcing, unlimited labor, human augmentation
- (09:55) - Pants that are an e-bike for your legs
- (11:27) - The mental tax of running a fleet of AI agents
- (13:28) - Your boss wants you to pay for your own augmentation
- (16:07) - Esther Perel, Spike Jonze, and falling in love with Her business model
- (18:55) - An AI Cyrano de Bergerac to help you win your lover’s heart
- (25:30) - IRL is the antidote!
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