South by Southwest (SXSW) is the annual collision of tech, culture, and existential dread wrapped in a breakfast taco. Jenny and Greg Swan just got back from Austin, and they have thoughts. Lots of them.
This year’s festival wasn’t just about what’s next in AI, creator culture, or the Fediverse (yes, we’ll explain that in a second). It was about something deeper—something more human. The underlying question across so many sessions wasn’t “What can tech do?” but rather, “What will we let it do to us?”
AI: The Future is Here, and We Have Notes
Generative AI dominated every conversation at SXSW 2025, but something felt... different. The excitement of previous years has given way to a collective oh, sh*t, now what?
AI isn’t a sci-fi fantasy anymore. It’s cloning voices in 27 seconds. It’s making decisions for us. It’s redefining what it means to be human. And people at SXSW—especially the tech optimists—weren’t sure how to feel about that.
Jenny went in with a mission: figure out what AI actually is right now, where it’s going, and what it’s truly capable of. What she found was a split narrative. On one side: the doomsayers, warning that AI will steal our cognition and maybe our souls. On the other: pragmatists, saying, Actually, AI might be the key to human flourishing.
One scientist put it this way: “What if I could put a million Harvard PhD-level minds in a room, all focused on solving cancer?”
So, which future do we choose to build?
Deepfakes & Digital Trust: Set Up a Family Password, Like, Now
Let’s talk about something terrifying for a second. At one activation, Greg stepped into a phone booth, answered a couple of questions, and within 27 seconds, AI had cloned his voice and called him back, pretending to be in distress.
Imagine getting that call from your kid.
Deepfake fraud attempts have increased 2137% over the last three years, and it’s only getting easier. The solution? Have a family password—something only your inner circle knows—so if a call feels off, you can verify it’s really them.
This isn’t paranoia. It’s the reality of the world we’re entering. We’re going to do an entire episode on this.
The Social Media Reckoning: BlueSky, Algorithms & Owning Your Content
Speaking of trust issues, social media is having an identity crisis. Twitter (fine, X) is a mess. Instagram is an ad-filled dopamine casino. And new platforms like BlueSky are pitching a decentralized future where users actually own their content.
Jenny and Greg are divided on this one. Greg is very into the Fediverse—the idea that social networks could work like email, where you own your data and move it freely. Jenny? She thinks it’s all an overcomplicated tech bro dream until they actually prove why normal humans should care.
But one thing is clear: people are exhausted by the current state of social media. Whether BlueSky is the future or not, we need better options.
Tech Anxiety: We’re All Feeling It, Even the Nerds
One of the biggest themes this year? The sheer amount of tech anxiety—and not just from everyday users, but from the people building the future.
Esther Perel, Amy Webb, and Google’s former Chief Innovation Evangelist sat down for a live podcast recording to ask: How do we stay human when everything around us is accelerating?
Esther made a simple but powerful point: When you remove your emotions from the conversation, you force others to hold them. That’s exactly what’s happening with AI. The people making it are often clinical, data-driven, and detached. But the rest of us? We’re left holding the emotional weight of what this all means.
So… What Now?
SXSW 2025 wasn’t about answers. It was about the questions we need to be asking right now.
AI isn’t neutral. So how do we shape it instead of letting it shape us?
Social media is broken. What’s next, and who gets to build it?
Tech is advancing faster than we can process. How do we protect what makes us human?
One thing’s for sure: If we expect the future to be a disaster, we will make it one. But if we choose to be active participants in shaping what’s next? That’s where real innovation happens.
And that’s exactly what we’re digging into on The Cave Project. Thanks for coming along. -Jenny and Greg
⏰ Timestamps (It’s Okay to Skip - We’ll Never Know)
00:00 Introduction to the Cave Project
00:40 Exploring South by Southwest
01:53 The Evolution of South by Southwest
02:42 Tech Innovations and Cultural Impact
04:26 The Role of Venture Capitalists and Brands
04:58 South by Southwest as a Creativity Hub
08:10 Personal Experiences and Key Takeaways
15:15 The Intersection of Technology and Society
25:59 AI and the Future of Innovation
48:12 Exploring Deep Fakes and AI Cloning
49:06 The Importance of Family Passwords
50:45 Technology Anxiety at South By
51:00 Esther Perel's Podcast and Human Relationships
53:47 The Future of Technology and Human Connection
01:05:00 AI's Impact on Human Flourishing
01:10:37 The Creator Economy and Brand Activations
01:14:38 Blue Sky and the Future of Social Media
01:24:55 Reflections on South By Southwest
🎙️ The Cave Project Archives
If you’re just joining us, welcome! We’re on Season 2 of The Cave Project — a movement exploring the nuance of our modern-day reality and the tension of our technological future with Jenny and Greg Swan. Check out the archives here.
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, watch on YouTube, subscribe on Substack to be notified of future episodes, and follow The Cave Project on Instagram!
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