SXSW showcases the power of human agency in the robot future

On the streets of Austin, Tesla’s Optimus robot served drinks to SXSW revelers. Nearby, a pint-sized android flipped the bird at passersby. 

The question surfacing across the conference: how can humans reassert themselves to shape what comes next? 

At a “creative bar” at Siegel Family Endowment and Stanford’s d.school’s Public House, Ideo designers coached entrepreneurs to reimagine “purpose” as a moat in the AI era. In a fishbowl conversation over at Omidyar Network’s The Light House, a 17-year-old student from the AI-enabled Alpha School reminded innovators to meet kids where they’re at. Poder Suave, a cross-border gathering of US and Mexican builders, used music and food to bridge political divides. 

“When a person earns some money, saves, invests, creates, trades, and in doing so, expands the freedom of other people around them, there’s a role in financing that,” Roberto Lazzeri, who leads Mexican development banks Bancomext and Nafin, said to kickoff Poder Suave. Such “soft power,” he said, “is not the opposite of hard power. It is the foundation that makes hard power legitimate.” 

The tech we want

Amid demos and dealmaking at the sprawling tech festival, a quieter push emerged to center culture, design and human connection in shaping what comes next.

Denver-based Amoofy collected 280 stories in 14 hours using voice-based stories on the future of tech from the diverse crowd at The Light House, a two-day event hosted by Omidyar Network’s The Tech We Want.

With its voice-based surveys delivered via WhatsApp or SMS services, “Amoofy listens at scale,” founder Luis Duarte told ImpactAlpha. The AI-augmented service then turns the raw narratives into actionable intelligence for companies, investors and public services. “The right rooms, the right stories, and the right people change everything,” Duarte shared later on LinkedIn.

The Light House teamed with the Equitech Welcome Breakfast, bringing together diverse ecosystem builders from around the country with providers of alternative capital. The Tech We Want is taking the act on tour to Birmingham, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Oakland and Martha’s Vineyard later this year.

“At Equitech, innovators don’t have to sing for their supper,” Equitech founder Laurie Felker Jones told ImpactAlpha. “When builders can focus on solving real problems instead of chasing permission, they help expand economic opportunity and shape a more inclusive future.” 

Among those on hand in Austin: Omidyar Network’s Michele Jawand and Aniyia Williams, Siegel Family Endowment’s Katy Knight, Amber Porter of AmFam Institute and Lohas’ Rick Davis. The event also attracted ecosystem builders from cities around the country, including Tech Birmingham’s Deontée Gordon and Camelback Ventures’ Shawna Young, Corridor Ventures’ Kwamena Aidoo, Armillaria’s Astrid Scholz and Just Community’s Steve Wanta and LocalCode’s Jeff Mendelsohn. 

People-powered

At SXSW, doomers and boomers traded competing narratives about the impact of AI on jobs, politics and the future itself. 

“How do we put agency back in human hands in the age of AI, as opposed to having all the agents outside?” MacArthur Foundation’s John Palfrey asked in a conversation titled “Reclaiming our Humanity in the Age of AI.”

Karen Hao, author of “Empire of AI,” said people‑powered movements can help ensure AI policies reflect public interests rather than corporate ones. 

Timnit Gebru of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute said community‑specific AI projects, like The Huniki Federation, can help communities control data, goals and deployment. “I don’t want to build one model for everything,” said Gebru. “I want to build many models for many different kinds of people in the world, because there’s no one way of being human.”

At the Public House, Anna Tumadóttir of Creative Commons said AI was spurring a rethink of open-source publishing. “The internet worked because creators had agency. AI breaks that contract,” she said. “We want choice. We want agency. We do not want unfettered reuse and sharing with the machines.”

Siegel Family Endowment supports ImpactAlpha’s “Shaping the Algorithm” coverage.