1. Social media champions are struggling to reconcile its good and bad impacts on society, with concerns that it reduces empathy and harms civic discourse. 2. Emerging technologies like IoT and AI raise serious issues around privacy, security, and job disruption that require thoughtful policy solutions. 3. SXSW panels demonstrated a new maturity in exploring real challenges of technologies like VR, blockchain, and AI rather than just hype, with a focus on human-centered design and experimentation to understand societal impacts.

1. KEY THEMES & LEARNINGS FROM
March 2017SS+K

2. A lot of discussion ...
A Human rights lawyer asked Mayor Corey Booker about the impact of social media on social discourse
Panelists discussed the potential for Universal Basic Income to save us from no more jobs
Climber & photographer Cory Richards talked about facing the realities of human capacity
Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian discussed why Reddit is more important than ever
The ACLU explained why we need to defend ourselves against abuses of the 4th Amendment
Microsoft researcher Chris White demonstrated how to use data visualization to uncover sex trafficking
Samsung and LeapMotion revealed their hard learned insights working on VR
Formerly classified Pentagon employee discussed self-healing drone swarms and the future of warfare
Tech journalist Josh Topolsky detailed his thesis for his new media company “The Outline”
Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf tackled the key challenges facing the growth of the Internet
VC’s revealed their strategies for investing in the next generation of sports
Mark Cuban explained how he thinks Artificial Intelligence will impact business
IBM and Johnson & Johnson discussed how AI and Blockchain are driving health innovation
MIT Scratch and Cartoon Network shared why their partnership helps kids want to code
Adam Grant revealed how to apply organizational psychology to your business
Adam Savage discussed fostering the maker movement in cities
Kara Swisher interviewed Obama alums about their new media venture Crooked Media
10 different designers gave 5 minute presentations on the role of design in society
Yasmin Green of Google Jigsaw interviewed the worst purveyors of fake news on their motivations
Artist and director Chris Milk revealed his ambitions for breakthrough immersive interactive VR
SS+K spoke with The Onion and Betaworks about learnings from building Messenger chatbots
Unity, NYU Media Labs, and Cabibo talked human-centered approaches to VR Interfaces
Daydream Labs on work process to build two VR/AR prototypes per week
Occupational Therapist, psychologist and game developer on the efficacy of VR for exposure therapy

3. In previous years, SXSW seemed defined by the “buzz” of shiny
objects. But technology is maturing and with it so is SXSW.
The conversations were harder this year, there was less optimism,
more questioning and challenging.
It was the type of introspection and debate we need to progress in
the face of our uncertain times.
Here are some examples.
… and a new trend:

4. Social media champions are
struggling to reconcile the good and
bad impact it is having on society.
1.

5. Faced the pain of seeing
only the perfect parts of
everyone’s lives on
social media, versus all
of his own difficulties
Concerned social media
is insular & unexamined,
reducing empathy and
having a corrosive effect
on civic discourse
Cory Booker: Cory Richards:
Doing ethnographies on
the kingpins of fake
news to understand their
psyche, motivations, and
strategies
Yasmin Green:

6. “It’s huge misunderstandings
that leave scars on our families
and our society”
- Cory Richards

7. We are losing control of privacy,
and it needs to be solved for both
technology and policy.
2.

8. The IOT revolution is putting
unsecured and unmaintained
devices everywhere, with no
recognition of long-term
manufacturer responsibility.
Device Security:
We’ve consolidated more
personal & private data in one
place than ever before, so
seizure of devices is more
intrusive and than ever.
Right to Privacy:

9. 3. Lots of unknowns with AI, so
experimentation is critical in
preparing for the revolution.

10. As jobs are lost to AI, is a
government-paid minimum
income more efficient &
empowering than current
social welfare?
Universal Basic Income:
We stopped Microsoft Tay
when it became a fascist, but
developers need to experiment
and learn now how untethered
AI might play out.
Artificial Intelligence:

11. "Whatever you are studying right
now, if you are not getting up to
speed on deep learning, neural
networks, etc., you lose. We are
going through a process where
software will automate software,
automation will automate
automation." - Mark Cuban

12. 4. We’re finally moving beyond
buzzwords and exploring the real
potential of emerging tech.

13. Not just bitcoin; bringing
transparency to pharma
supply chain by tracking
drug ingredients from
source to market.
Blockchain:
Reducing cognitive
overload of physicians, AI
enables better decisions
& more face time with
patients.
Artificial Intelligence: VR:
New focus on experiences
unique to VR and new
thinking about how
platform fidelity negatively
impacts user experiences.

14. To pursue truth on the internet,
engage in conversation and study
the data.
5.

15. People post their beliefs and
invite users to change their
mind. 30% of the time it works.
Can we scale this for a better
world?
Reddit Change My View: “Big Data” Visualization:
Advance data visualization
shows us the hidden truths of
the internet, like the
micro-trends markers that
exposed human trafficking.

16. "Never delegate understanding"
- Charles Eames (1950)

17. Building a popular chatbot can
teach you a lot about humans &
human interaction
6.

18. They have limitations,
but bots are uniquely
capable of helping
brands deliver 1:1
engagement at scale.
Bot personalities make it
easy for users to
suspend reality; people
confide their darkest
feelings in Poncho cat.
1:1 engagement: Human emotions: One conversation:
People don’t consider
individual channels; they
have one conversation
with your brand, across all
avenues.

19. 7. Post-Uber Austin yielded some
sobering insights on a hallmark
disruptor and its legacy.

20. Companies with “good enough”
product, different business
models, and fairer brand values
have filled the market, raising
questions of Uber’s “lock-in”.
Fasten & RideAustin:
The Uberfication of everything
is turning the world into
assisted living; friction leads to
serendipity, confrontation, and
personal growth.
Human Centered Design:

21. As systems become more
advanced, human involvement is
more critical than ever.
8.

22. Humans are far better adaptors
than AI. SOC puts human safety
controls in all high tech
weapons (e.g. geo-fencing every
“Swarm of 100”).
Future of Warfare:
Most VR interfaces are
skeumorphic retreads of old
tech. Human imagination is
better than this. “If 3D design
seems f*cked up in 2D, that’s
generally a good sign.”
Human-Centered VR Interfaces:

23. "The best special effects I ever
saw were on radio!"
- Ken Perlin’s 80-year-old mom.

24. Technology has outraced our intuition of the
social consequences, and now we’re playing
catch-up.
It will only get more powerful, more complicated,
and more ingrained in our lives.
We have to take responsibility, think further
ahead, and experiment with more purpose.
Let’s continue be inspired, bold and ambitious,
seek to change the world, but with more
consciousness of potential outcomes.

25. The pale blue dot. That's here. That's home.
That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone
you know, everyone you ever heard of, every
human being who ever was, lived out their
lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering,
thousands of confident religions, ideologies,
and economic doctrines, every hunter and
forager, every hero and coward, every
creator and destroyer of civilization, every
king and peasant, every young couple in
love, every mother and father, hopeful child,
inventor and explorer, every teacher of
morals, every corrupt politician, every
"superstar," every "supreme leader," every
saint and sinner in the history of our species
lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a
sunbeam.
- Carl Sagan