--- title: "SXSW Audience Loudly Boos Video About How AI Is Awesome" description: "At this year's South by Southwest, audiences booed a clip featuring people preaching the inevitably of an AI takeover." date: "2024-03-14" modified: "2024-03-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/sxsw-boos-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "kara swisher" - "SXSW" - "the digest" --- # SXSW Audience Loudly Boos Video About How AI Is Awesome ![At this year's South by Southwest, audiences booed a clip featuring people preaching the inevitably of an AI takeover.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Resistance Is Futile This year's South by Southwest (SXSW) is full of fraught ideologies, and its audiences have had enough. As [tweets]() from the annual festival show, folks were mighty unhappy when a sizzle reel promising that artificial intelligence is the best thing since sliced bread was screened before an unrelated rom-com. "The incredibly pro-AI sizzle reel today at SXSW being loudly booed and told to fuck off by roughly a thousand people in the Paramount was heartwarming," *RogerEbert.com* editor [Brian Tallerico tweeted](). "Read the room, people." Indeed, as one video shot by Marcelo Pico of the *Talk Film Society* blog and podcast demonstrates, people straight up heckled the unnecessary commentary as soon as the words "artificial intelligence" were uttered. https://twitter.com/MarceloJPico/status/1767753887799222700 ## Hit Clips As a post featuring the clip itself shows, the message being promoted at this year's SXSW is, essentially, telling people that [resistance is futile](). In one bit, veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher — who as [*Gizmodo* helpfully points out]() has also been [promoting her new memoir]() with the help of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — is heard saying that "every company is gonna look at AI and figure out how it helps make their companies more efficient." "Be one of those people that leverages AI," another speaker in the video says, "don’t be run over by it." https://twitter.com/MarceloJPico/status/1767696317843677398 ## Dropouts It's a deeply unpopular message for many on the hipper end of the tech spectrum — the same crowd that would likely have enjoyed sets by the dozens of artists who have [dropped out of the festival]() after learning that the US military was sponsoring events at it. As organizers for the Austin for Palestine Coalition [boasted in an Instagram post](), more than 80 artists have dropped out of the festival in boycott of the American military's participation in the continued siege of Gaza. While AI boosting is, unfortunately, par for the course in the tech sector that the festival appeals to, the military aspect [came as a surprise]() [to]() [many](). "When I found out they were going to have a massive presence at a music festival where creatives and young people get together to collaborate and connect, I couldn’t get behind that," tech CEO Ibrahim Batshon, who is Palestinian-American and a former sponsor of the event via his music licensing platform BeatStars, [told the *New York Times*](). AI and the military may seem like strange bedfellows for the tech and music festival, but it just goes to show that some pre-pandemic traditions [deserve to die](). If only Coachella, which is [still being run]() by a [conservative homophobe](), would follow suit. **More on AI weirdness:** [*Kids Are Watching Brain Melting AI-Generated Videos on YouTube Without Parents Realizing*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()