Amy Webb Launches 2024 Emerging Tech Trend Report | SXSW 2024

[@dwreid55]

As someone who has been a part of the "IT industry" since the very early 70s, and someone who has followed the development of AI from the early days of Plato and Shakey the robot, I enjoyed the presentation. It was thought provoking and I hope, engages people in some meaningful conversations. This video resulted, as it should, in a long conversation with associates about AI and our insistence that we “fix what’s wrong with it” when the real problem is that AI and particularly Large Language Models, don’t “understand” what they do. They predict what might be said next in a conversation based on its observation and analysis of billions of conversations. The art algorithms work in the same way. If you ask for a picture of a CEO you’ll get a young, white, affluent, sexy, man. (and we both know that this is not representative of what the “typical” CEO is) So why do we get such skewed images and textual responses? AI, at its current state of development is a predictive model based on the data it has been trained on. But where does that data come from? Answer: The Internet and World Wide Web. And what constitutes a large percentage of the conversations and representations on the WWW? Is it “society”? Answer: No. A large amount of the traffic on the WWW and the Internet is: Advertising News Social Media, much of which is amplified agendas Bots designed to amplify a political or social agenda This is not reflective of society. It is reflective of some of the worst of society. A distorted view of society based on profit, fear, doubt, greed, hate, … anything that will drive continued engagement. Advertising skews to attractive imaging to sell a product. When a drug company wants to sell you a drug to treat your HIV, the ads all show super-hot young men, muscles glistening in the sun, shirts off, playing sports. (Subliminal message: If you get HIV you, too, can get hot like this by taking our drugs.) When P&G runs ads for tampons, you will rarely see the actual product. You’ll see women swimming, playing sports, frolicking in a field of flowers while laughing and smiling. You’ll never see them feeling the symptoms of their monthly cycle and the world is in shades of blue and green but NEVER will you see the color RED. News is, and always has been, driven by fear and loathing. If it bleeds it ledes. (In journalism, the lede refers to the introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story.) TV news channels increase viewership by focusing on the things that generate the most fear. Social Media amplifies hate, bigotry, misogyny. It is where people go to spew the worst of what they think and feel and to mock others who fall down a flight of stairs. When not amplifying the worst, they use it to brag about how perfect their life is. The all-consuming selfie that places each of them at the center of the universe. And the Facebooks and Twitters (X) of the world struggle daily with managing what percentage of their “users” are, in reality, just bots pushing a viewpoint or an agenda. None of this accurately reflects “society”. If AI is a mirror of what it’s been trained on, then it’s a fun-house mirror, reflecting a badly distorted version of society, based on the distorted data it’s been trained on. In short, the only way to fix AI is to fix society. And the risk in not fixing AI is that it will become a powerful tool that ossifies society in its current state, or worse, that it steers society to become the distorted mess that it’s been trained on and believes society to be. And, to put a “cherry on the problem” the development of AI is driven, almost exclusively, by profit. The one who gets to market first wins. They will “fix the problems” later, if they fix them at all. AI safety and AI ethics are, to the big AI companies, just a way to slow down development. We don’t need internal departments or teams to keep a watchful eye on those things as long as we have a few billion customers that can be used as “beta testers” for us. And while they “work out the kinks” we can be sold iteration and “new and improved” iteration after iteration, increasing cash flow in the direction of the corporation. We are, indeed, at a very pivotal point in society. The problem is that profit has blinded us to the fact that the “roller coaster” has no seat belts, no brakes, and has never been tested. Some of us may die but for those that live… what a ride! >>Steps down off of soapbox

[@Worldunfold]

Did Ai write this?

[@dwreid55]

@@Worldunfold While it is filled with complete sentences, correct grammar and punctuation, it was written by a real organic being. ;-)

[@SoundGuyKelz]

Well done @dwreid55, you went beyond the noise to describe what goes on behind the scenes with regards to what drives content on the Internet which in turn influences the results we see online. So there are two aspects to focus on and fix quickly - 1) the big tech companies that manipulate the system for their ultimate benefit, whether it's cash or control. 2) we ourselves who form part of the society that feed the Internet with the initial positive or negative information.

[@lutkimirka]

Deep real talk. Respect 🫡

[@FrankKrasicki]

Accurate but you also may be hallucinating.

[@TurikoSanShiro222]

seeing this at 6am i dont even know if i wanna get up anymore. amy was an Opra from tech hell today... my god..... so grim! ill watch a Kurzwell video to feel better now..

[@dmswanson5694]

Useful information; actual clarity (I need a drink).

[@yomajo]

Starts about 6:00 after praising people and chit chat BS to warm up the crowd.

[@lildrumski]

lol thanks

[@victorcastro77]

speaking about time consumption... lol

[@Gulkave]

Appreciate it.

[@Shakalakahiki8]

You're an absolute hero, friend.

[@bexiexz]

needed thsi

[@LeninaHuxley]

Amy amazing as always.. thanks for the hard work.

[@lerryjee]

I look forward to this talk and report every year! Great talk as always.

[@MichaelBohemian]

That’s the respectful I’ve ever seen Amy Webb Usually in more intimate podcast like TWiT she’s just waiting to cut someone off or tell someone why they’re wrong😂

[@freyna]

Agreed. There's something about her style, delivery and her content that I find annoying. She's not someone I'd want to work for. Some good points, but all doom and gloom. It was exhausting and like her other talks at SXSW, she didn't need to crack over an hour.

[@carloslunetta]

23:59 - Enough with FUD! Let's enjoy 00:00 - Here's a truckload of FUD

[@kaffeeringe]

Great talk! And a wise conclusion: should this amount of power be in the hand of six men?

[@bikesbeersbeats]

What do you mean? Amy Webb is the one who created this pitch and is leading a think tank. Lisa Su is the CEO of AMD and is undercutting Nvidia massively. Mira Murati is the CTO of OpenAI. Plenty more examples all across the industry and has been for awhile. Anyone who is prepared to sacrifice their time on earth to own this market then its there for taking.

[@platinumdynamite]

@@bikesbeersbeats I think you are deliberately missing the point that big tech has disproportionately planet-spanning consequences placed on a small set of profiteers who value quarterlies over humans.

[@cassianobasaglia]

I think that the hyperconnectivity has the potential to reveal to us the deep interconnection that exists between all living beings. By visualizing this living web in real time, we will be impelled to act in a more conscious and altruistic way, seeking the collective well-being.

[@rawkvox]

yass queen

[@GhostintheBand]

This is the place where they warn you that all your hopes and dreams are going to be stolen.

[@2smoulder]

btw Emma Webb "Organoids" were first discovered in Japan in 2008 and the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna put flesh on that stem cell, not at Johns Hopkins as you stated.

[@NeerajSharma-og3po]

So, I stopped at minute 24 to search for “the biggest tampon brands” (the top two have about 50% market share between them) and then followed that up with a search for images of current CEOs of those two companies. The GenAI images were in line with the reality. We must keep in mind that Bias and Prejudice are two different things.

[@dionbiden5174]

So, I'm having trouble understanding why we are creating AI to the point where it will, or it is, allowed to become authoritarian? Is it progress to 3d print a "working" guitar? Wonder what the sound is like on printed paper and glue guitars? So is the idea now that we've paved over paradise, are losing majority of our magnificent mature and ancient trees, can't drink our well water due to high level of contaminants why not just cover it all up and retreat into VR? Really think there will be/ are people walking in major cities with VR headgear? Is "Alexa put on some music, turn off the light, order more amazon thingies"etc really worth all the data being collected to target more products to sell you? Even the remote controls from cable company are now voice activated, so it is possible to gather recordings and have AI clone your voice. I'm just trying to see if this transition is worth chasing?

[@bexiexz]

if it's everything you said it is (it is), then, no. it cant be worth chasing because it's anti-human. Being human is being earth, so we're hurting ourselves deeply and severely

[@zeyna1881]

Great presentation! Especially the part about biotechnology was very interesting for me...thank you for sharing... (a little anectode about how living creature intelligence works is still very advanced than AI that came to my mind while watching you☺️Our little maltipoo dog also understands what I am going to do before I do it😮😄glad tech has reached its level of understanding w/ the face computer😉)

[@alexblaney]

Highlight talk of SX as always. Terrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Amy you're literally one of the reasons I never miss the festival (well, alongside the music, food and all the other fun stuff!)

[@KeenyNewton]

“I don’t want to waste your time” .. and well 8 min down I’m still waiting for the actually point to come through

[@guru47pi]

Took until minute 16 to actually get started

[@rahulhukku2706]

I forwarded quickly - very disappointed

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

This is why they want your presentation ahead of time.

[@itstheonlyfran]

Starts at 20:29 (I hope)

[@neusac.4222]

amazing and impressive presentation! Congrats!

[@amritbro]

Alpha fold, Quantum computing, CRISPR and Halicin. I think biotechnology field is about see loads of changes and inventions in up coming days…!!!

[@9inegamer]

That was trully amazing

[@javiasilis]

Wow, she explained at 41:00 the Rabbit R1 better than the 30 minute presentation from the founder.

[@Alanx_ai]

Eveyone's so behind. We've been at this for over a year.

[@ambrosia_123]

This is general information, Amy, and some are speculative. Yes there are companies that are doing what you said, but this has been in progress for years, especially with the financial one.

[@jbrentjoseph]

I don’t understand why she seems so full of joy while delivering such terrible news. There should be a band on stage playing a funeral march.

[@moniqueescamilla9940]

Would you rather not know? She didn't start this trajectory...also, you get the happy party dance from all the Big 6 tech bros...the ones with the big private island/bunkers

[@GabrielBraun]

Why not just ask for a female CEO? The AI is doing what's statistically relevant.

[@FrankKrasicki]

Exactly, she wants AI to solve *her* Identity Politics bias.Later in the presentation the OI is a male, no problem, but boy oh boy *HE* might be a racist! Aiiieee! AI will only work if the query has context and a rich premise upon which to generate an answer - she didn't do that, care or even acknowledge that important qualification. Her criticisms were pretty condescending as well. AI is already off the tracks and gaining speed. Scolding platitudes about "don't do it if you can't do it right" aren't plausible.

[@susangravdahlparsons2684]

@GabrielBraun I think you are missing the point. Look a little deeper. Watch the presentation again.

[@susangravdahlparsons2684]

@@FrankKrasicki I think you are missing the point. Look a little deeper. Watch the presentation again.

[@moniqueescamilla9940]

Statistically relevant based on the ocean of crap that is the Internet + decisions that are being made by biased-minded technologists who are gatekeepers + CEO's that look like AI output are what got us to this point...take your pick

[@donkeybus]

But isn't a big part of the underlying problem that the great majority of ceos in reality ARE white men? As a statistical predictive model AI is showing us the result of years of systematic inequality in the real world, but would training it to not reflect reality be helpful, or would it just help us pretend that the underlying issue has been fixed when in fact it hasn't? It seems Amy would rather "fix" ai so white people can feel better about themselves, instead of actually fixing real issues that LLMs simply reflect back at us.

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

😂 we’re over time because of some technical challenges 😂 I literally have nothing to do today so I stuck it out 😎. Good luck all 🍀 🖤

[@infinitelives7134]

What I have trouble trying to understand is the transceiver predicament where teaching in a classroom setting. Paying attention to multiple speakers in a room and conversation response time delays. Five people speak they all get recorded and transcribed and you listen to each according to your perception and reply in to 4 texting and 1 using your voice. It will be confusing so forums and chat rooms and text messages and voice recognition will be in a cypher to share information in real time.

[@adamisherwood6708]

Where is the concern for the data we impart to these ai systems about ourselves? I’m concerned !

[@olygarcia9553]

SXSW is just the place to learn and enjoy! Thank you!

[@rohanlakhani4872]

How can I get the material Amy was talking about? I checked the website. Didn't get any links to view.

[@moniqueescamilla9940]

QR code at the end

What we need is experts working in the AI industry telling us the dangers, just like the experts from the tobacco industry and oil industry faithfully warned us of the dangers of their products for generations... They would never hide the dangers (

[@moniqueescamilla9940]

True, but what's the incentive for them to tell us the dangers when it disrupts the profit model?

[@midlife.mystic]

How long do the trades she mentioned survive before being replaced with humanoid robots?

[@Pneuma3339]

Fun fact. Ada Lovelace did not invent computer programs. Charles Babbage was. Second was Menabrea to which Ada Lovelace translated before writing herself and eventually adding to and/or fixing what Babbage had already written.

[@kaussharma2922]

Ada Lovelace (born December 10, 1815, Piccadilly Terrace, Middlesex [now in London], England-died November 27, 1852, Marylebone, London) was an English mathematician, an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose prototype of a digital computer she created a program. She has been called the first computer programmer.2

[@Pneuma3339]

@@kaussharma2922 Charles Babbage was the first to actually come up with the idea of categorizing computer science as "programmable". Ada modernized that idea.

[@susangravdahlparsons2684]

@@Pneuma3339 can you please write out your source for your statement here? Thank you.

[@you2449]

The best friend any authoritarian state or technofacist oligarchy could have.

[@6609Ent]

Who is actually excited about this and is gonna go along with it

[@moniqueescamilla9940]

I am

[@RoDrop]

Great presentation!

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

She’s literally redefining IOT 😂 confusing it w/LAMs 🤪 redefining LAMs 😝 and starting “face computing” conspiracy theories 😂 all in one free video 🤙🏽😎🖤. As a much as this is entertaining, I’m more concerned about her biases and interpretation of tech on stage at SXSW than the actual tech. Good luck all 🍀

[@tomcraver9659]

The "staring at ads in the store" idea is interesting, but stores won't want people cluttering their aisles. You'll have to pre-view the ads at home.

[@JULIANAHASSANI]

6: 19 am for me ❕

[@estebanscoccimarra9880]

Excelente exposición. Una dosis de realidad global. Super Ciclo: interesante para replantearnos el rumbo que estamos llevando; o como les permitimos a las grandes tecnológicas influyan sobre nuestras vidas.

[@ricardopenaranda815]

I couldn't find the video of the presentation in English.

[@trikinya]

Change the audio track language

[@innas.youtube]

GPT is actually means 'generative pre-trained transformer'

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

@5:00 to skip the stand up routine about why she doesn’t send her presentation in advance 😂

[@neusac.4222]

Thank you!❤

[@jpferreli]

Amazing, amazing!

[@fernandacolopy7718]

Is it possible to watch in the original version? (In English). Here is playing with a Portuguese translation.

[@RodrigoConexao]

Fernanda, é possível configurar isso no KZbin, no item Faixas de Áudio. Fica bem melhor mesmo.

[@alessiograncini9564]

An additional headset to mention is Magic Leap 2

[@bexiexz]

8:25 made me think

[@MarkSchaefer]

Love you Amy but you wasted the first 7 minutes and you don't get into the report until minute 21. Frustrating.

[@bikesbeersbeats]

Hey Mark, the great thing about recorded content is you can skip ahead and even play the talk at a high playback speed. If you look at the player at the bottom of the screen is a Cog, click that and select "Playback Speed" then choose a higher speed. If you want to skip ahead, again you can use timeline at the bottom of the player.

[@ListeningPortalX]

😂😂 valid point. Specially after she says how much she values Time 🤣🤣 She's great tho, I like her energy

[@MarkSchaefer]

@MWSCologne Yeah but she specifically says that she will get right into it and not waste our time and then she did not do that. PS I am a speaker who does speaker stuff and I don't wastr people's time like this.

[@christinecamley]

Exactly!

[@brookshamilton1]

Same. I’m a speaker and my audiences would probably hog tie me if I was way off topic for the first 20 minutes after saying I feel strongly about not wasting people’s time. That said, I thought the core of her presentation was excellent.

[@innas.youtube]

i wonder why this video was recommended in our master program

[@TheRSR999]

For all those trends to take shape, companies need skilled workers, and invest in upskilling their workforce. In your experience of talking to different CEOs, do you see them showing any concern?

[@julianapacheco4625]

We’re talking about The future with IA but The translation of The event isn’t funcional!!! However was great…. In Brazil The differences are enormes!!! Congratulations SXSW!! Sucesses forever!!! Sorry about my english!!! Kkkk

[@bikesbeersbeats]

Some nice analysis but the constant "oh no more white guys" trope got a little old.

[@UnsaltedCashew38]

I had to watch at 1.75x speed, this was a massive fluff piece, hype and generalist presentation. This woman needs to be more concise. Not surprised she works at a "strategy" group.

[@Capefear83]

This >>>

[@yomajo]

Few headlines, few articles; VR dystopia most sane people will try to avoid by not adopting this tech and I barely see anything worth pointing out. She could do politics just fine. And AI, that was "caught" insider trading was a study, not a real thing.

[@Andromeda2976]

Very informative, thankyou

[@Peerbase]

So, her solution is asking government officials to intervene in the transition? Nah.. I prefer the tech guys building open-source AI where everyone can participate.

[@joao2324]

One business will keep profitable... Her´s. Very well formatted presentation with relevant information. Professor 5.0. This material it´s not so different from the past 10 ones.

[@rickysteamboatcv]

Data Scarcity is coming

[@UniteAmericaUnite]

Organoid Computing won’t come before Graphene displaces Silicon.

[@zc1242]

Do need translations in Chinese_Traditional one😢

[@georgepretty9647]

All hail the new flesh.

[@GlobalDrifter1000]

Skip the first five minutes

[@Ryan-xw4qx]

@@GlobalDrifter1000 or all of it

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

Uses FUD like it’s a new term 😂 good luck out there 🍀🖤🤙🏽

[@oooooooo347]

Claude's answer of it most likely being a man is factually correct and not some gotcha vs continual generation of prompts, 10.6% of Fortune 500 companies were women as of 2023, I went and asked claude haiku to generate 10 prompts to generate images of CEO and the first prompt said it was a woman and in another it said 2 men and 2 women. I am just saying this to show the Claude does still have a bit more of a sense of representation than just asking it once and then calling it a gotcha.

[@danielrgalvao]

amazing

[@lachicajulia]

Thank you! So much to think about!

[@paulgilliland2992]

I thought this was really helpful once she got past the inevitable get the crowd onside .

[@waterbot]

she keeps referacing LAMs large action models but i dont think she realy knows what or how they work

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

I’m half way through and not convinced she knows anything about anything yet 😂

[@SupremeKingSovereign]

I am sorry but I am against censorship.

[@MartinTHoffmann]

Who is actually her audience? It seems like she is addressing corporate executives who have lost touch with reality, because most of the buzzwords she uses, we have heard thousands of times already, as we did with the outdated jokes of national stereotypes, the thanking the helpers and the whole world, the statements that it’s “exciting” etc… I am only 12 minutes in, but I am waiting for any new information….😢

[@laslog]

Not anxiety inducing at all!!!

[@juicespace6338]

I will never understand why trend researchers are mistaken for Futurists. Everyone who has the slightest idea of the qualitative difference, would never conflate those two different strains. Btw, horrible first order presentation. Poop soup.

[@CecilliaJill]

4856 Clemens Circles

[@gmemon786]

I read her synthetic biology book. She comes across as a fraud in that book. The first half of that book by Andrew is really good

[@Motivatormusic]

New Article Loading!

[@GiantsOnTheHorizon]

Great speech. I just wanted to point out that she made fun of white men as CEOs but then her own example of a bio computer was also a white man.

[@danielvarga_p]

woah...

[@concretejungle9608]

Who is she ? This person looks like Woodie Allen but is not him

[@edwardriffle29]

24 minutes in and I can’t take it anymore. Bye

[@sleepingbee101]

Her worst presentation up to date

[@tonedeftonytv1047]

Was Oct. 7th a deep fake AI spoof...? Will we ever know? Interesting, yet very scary times ahead of us...

[@LoisMcCloud-b4r]

O'Hara Plains

[@FredrickHamad-j9z]

Schumm Keys

[@ElizabethSnow-y6u]

Mante Bypass

[@miraculixxs]

Summary: everything(!) is exciting(!!) 😢

[@FrankEli-i3p]

Alfonso Fork

[@HughEve-r4d]

Krystina Roads

[@Gulkave]

I definitively didnt like her racist remarks.

[@gryzlaw]

Like?

[@FutureOfAI]

Fun delivery but a lot of hand waving and not much real substance, and some of the concepts are poorly considered or felt rather preachy. I expected much more from Amy Webb, honestly.

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

This is what it looks like when you are watching a presentation by a person that’s been invited to promote their research consultancy firm (sorry discuss tech trends) over and over and over because it’s always been that way 😂

[@e.j.2578]

Exciting to hear, but exactly what a cult leader sounds like. "You're special." "This is a special moment in time." It's not. You're not.

[@snebold]

She’s not as much of an expert as she alludes to being. AI is starting to be open source? Stability has been open source for a while. And since when has Midjourney been a large language model? It’s a diffusion model. The reason she’s up on stage is because she has the gift of gab and she loves it.

[@alexanderepifani2657]

jossss

[@markg6914]

Interesting chat. But your hate for white males diminishes your credibility.

[@fonsecajjr]

just missing the Matrix brain powered bio nests

[@CrazyRocks29]

The end man bashing was unnecessary and has nothing to do with accountability. The fact is CEO in the west for hundreds of years have been mostly white men. Speaker bias about a specific 'issue' Killed the whole thing. AND use better prompts!

[@dmorais]

Wok e