Glimpsed at SXSW: Robot Soccer, AI Sweet Nothings, and Pants That Do the Walking | It's FAFO Friday

Mar 20, 2026

A rooftop roundup from SXSW covering robot soccer and the race for humanoids to beat humans. They riff on wearable augmentation like e-bike pants and the cost of outsourcing feelings to AI. Conversations touch on the mental tax of managing many AI agents and the odd economics of falling for AI-powered services.

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INSIGHT

Technology Is Convergence Not Creation

New tech is often convergence of older technologies rather than wholly new inventions.
Dan Blumberg highlights humanoid robots, world models vs LLMs, wearables, and post-quantum cryptography as assembled pieces creating new capabilities.

ANECDOTE

RoboCup Field Trip At UT Austin

Kwaku learned about RoboCup: a goal for humanoid robot teams to beat top human soccer teams by 2050.
He visited UT Austin's rebuilt facility, saw slow four-foot robots kicking balls, and plans a field trip to view them.

INSIGHT

Amy Webb's Three Convergences

Amy Webb framed three convergences: emotional outsourcing, unlimited labor, and human augmentation.
Examples include assistive hiking pants as an e-bike for legs and wearables advising dietary choices via biometric data.

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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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