SXSW 2025 rolled into Austin this year with all its usual buzz, but amidst the taco trucks, loud techno bro’s, jetlagged travellers and badge-wearing crowds, something pretty extraordinary happened: “The Vibe”, this bizarre feeling that things are getting started. Temperature is rising, anticipation is growing. Information rolls in in big waves of relentless intensity and relevance.
MIT
Nothing better than starting the day with some good old MIT on a Friday morning. Niall Firth, Executive Editor at MIT Technology Review, presented a featured session discussing the very near future. “10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025”. I admit, that title could have been a bit sexier 😊. But this keynote effectively delivered the roadmap for our near-future lives. And trust me, this isn’t your average tech hype, MIT’s choices are kinda refreshing.
Firth teed off with the Rubin Observatory in Chile. Sure, a giant digital camera snapping the entire night sky every three days sounds like overkill, but it’s precisely what’s needed to finally crack the cosmic mysteries we’ve only just scratched. Astronomy isn’t just looking up anymore: it’s binge-watching the universe in real-time and the Rubin telescope -with some help from AI and quantum computing- is our best hope in unraveling the secrets of dark matter.
Of course there’s AI, evolving from digital assistant to eerily insightful friend. Hyper-personalized search is about to retire the humble Google results page in favor of direct answers tailored exactly to you. The future of searching won’t just know what you asked, it’ll know why you’re asking. It will answer you in your favorite way. A blessing for students, researchers, and everyone who hates scrolling through irrelevant links? Or an absolute brain numbing nightmare on steroids, creating the biggest echo chambers history has ever seen?
Alongside this gargantuan AI awakening are compact, task-focused language models—essentially, AI on a diet. SLM’s: Small Language Models. They’re leaner, quicker, and perfect for industries like finance, legal, auditing and healthcare, where getting the right answer at exactly the right moment isn’t just nice; it’s life-changing. These models can do their thing conveniently nested on a resident server, without swapping the most delicate data of the company all over the internet.
Speaking of diets, even cows are on board on this first trends-overview of SXSW. Methane-reducing supplements and custom diets are here to slash greenhouse emissions significantly. In other words: we used some of the worlds most powerful AI-tech and synthetic tech to make cows…. fart less. Who knew saving the planet involved giving Bessie a high-tech snack?
Autonomous taxis, once a quirky curiosity, have officially arrived. But now, they’re not just gimmicks, they’re prompting a serious rethink of our daily commute. Imagine catching a ride without awkward driver conversations (or tips): welcome to the future. In Austin you can catch them… I tried them out btw, and i’s creepingly convenient to watch this car navigate the busy Austing traffic by its self.
Air travel, notoriously carbon-heavy, finally sees real relief through renewable jet fuels. I thought MIT was smoking some hallucinating herbs, but they came with tons of proof. So, soon, imagine stepping onto a flight without checking your carbon guilt at the gate. We’re almost there. The planet will t(h)ank us.
Factories aren’t left behind either. Adaptable robots, capable of learning new tasks on the fly, are the industry’s latest obsession. Flexibility isn’t just smart business anymore; it’s survival in an economy that’s spinning faster every day. Spoiler alert: these robots will not just keep to heavy monotone repeating tasks. They will adapt and learn, evolve, take more space: impacts on workforce and performance are incoming…
Healthcare leaps forward, too… of course. Forget daily HIV pills; the future offers long-lasting protection with minimal fuss. Meanwhile, experimental cell therapies are promising victories over previously untouchable conditions like epilepsy and diabetes. Synthetic technology, on genome treatments and nanotech will let us keep our healthy cathedrals of bodies longer.
Lastly, green steel, created using renewable-powered hydrogen, is quietly dismantling industry’s carbon legacy, one beam at a time. Once one of the biggest polluters on the planet, hanging steel might now have a greener connotation.
Signal
All fired up by these promising possibilities, I stepped into another room full of tech enthusiasts, eagerly anticipating another thrilling announcement of “world-changing innovation,” only to watch Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, stroll confidently onto the stage and expertly pour ice-cold water on everyone’s collective AI fantasy. Whittaker thinks faster than Hamilton on Red Bull, and holds no prisoners. In an interview with Guy Kawasaki, her smart wit and incredible speed of thinking were both hilarious and impressive.
In a storyline that could best be summarized as “Your AI Genie Is Actually a Spy,” Whittaker delivered a series of biting reality checks, complete with vivid metaphors and dry wit. “Agentic AI,” she explained, “is basically like putting your brain in a jar and trusting a genie bot to handle your life’s mundane tasks. Only; the genie also happens to be moonlighting as Big Brother.”
Whittaker didn’t hold back, illustrating how these autonomous AI agents happily browse through your personal data—web history, calendar appointments, credit card details, and private messages—because, let’s face it, booking concert tickets or reminding you about your cousin’s birthday apparently requires CIA-level clearance into your private life.
“Oh, but don’t worry,” she sarcastically reassured her audience. “All this deeply personal information isn’t safely nestled in the comfort of your device. It’s floating blissfully unencrypted in the cloud. Who doesn’t love sharing their life story with servers located who-knows-where?” The tech industry’s obsession with the “bigger-is-better” data model also drew Whittaker’s sharp critique. “Collecting more data for better AI is like feeding an insatiable dragon,” she quipped, “except this dragon doesn’t hoard gold:it hoards your private moments, embarrassing search queries, and late-night impulse purchases.”
She further shattered any lingering illusions about privacy by noting how integrating AI agents into encrypted messaging platforms (like her very own Signal) could compromise the confidentiality these apps are built on. “Imagine your private texts becoming AI snack food,” she joked darkly, “chewed up and spat back as helpful summaries. Convenience never tasted so intrusive.” While the audience might have hoped for a future where AI quietly managed life’s hassles, Whittaker made it abundantly clear this convenience isn’t free. “We’re trading our autonomy and privacy for tiny moments of laziness,” she warned, calling on developers and policymakers to wake up and smell the dystopia.
Whittaker’s brutally entertaining wake-up call at SXSW wasn’t just doom and gloom, though: it served as an essential reality check. Her urgent plea was clear: the AI industry must innovate without becoming complicit in the surveillance state. Until then, maybe keep your brain out of the jar. Especially with Uncle Trump and Brother Musk breathing in our necks.
Disney
There’s something oddly satisfying—almost a guilty pleasure—about tuning into a Disney keynote. Truthfully, I cannot resist sitting in on their sessions. After all, isn’t storytelling one of my jobs? To relay information, ignite enthusiasm, foster a sense of culture? Where better to sharpen those skills than with the best of the best?
On one hand, you’re fully aware you’re watching the finely orchestrated pageantry of an entertainment juggernaut; a company that, honestly, holds far too many of our beloved franchises tightly in its polished, corporate grip. But then, inevitably, nostalgia kicks in. Memories of those small, beautiful, intimate moments flood back, from the delicate innocence of “Bambi” to the timeless magic of “Snow White,” all the way to the gritty charm of “The Mandalorian.” Disney, it turns out, is hardwired into our emotional circuitry.
This duality was vividly illustrated in Disney’s latest SXSW presentation, boldly labeled “The Future of World-Building at Disney.” Yes, the title alone could induce an eyeroll or two. But as Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman took the stage, it was hard not to appreciate their earnest tribute to the company’s storytelling legacy. Disney, they reminded us, exists in that rare sweet spot between cutting-edge tech and heartfelt creativity—exactly as Uncle Walt himself intended.
And then came the kicker, steeped in delightful irony: onto the stage walked Robert Downey Jr.—yes, Iron Man himself. Not a stand-in for our local tech mogul turned self-styled supervillain (looking at you, Musk), but the actual actor who became synonymous with Tony Stark. He was there, naturally, to introduce Disney’s newest attraction, the “Stark Flight Lab,” an adrenaline-pumping ride set for Disney California Adventure’s Avengers Campus. The experience, Downey Jr. explained with characteristic charm, promises guests the chance to live out their Iron Man fantasies inside gyro-kinetic pods simulating Stark’s iconic flight patterns.
Adding to the charm, small, adorable drones buzzed around the presentation area, capturing candid audience reactions and evoking delighted smiles. They felt like Disney’s nod to its whimsical past, tiny pixie-like cameras dancing overhead, blending innocence with innovation.
The irony was not subtle: Disney had just brought the genuine Iron Man to Austin, Texas, territory usually associated with Musk, our real-world Stark-gone-wrong. The humor of the moment was deliciously layered—Disney effortlessly playing with our perceptions, mixing corporate ambition with genuine joy.
