TechCrunch will be on the floor at SXSW 2025 — the annual tech, song, comedy, and movie conference that kicked off Friday in Austin — in the hunt for the zeitgeist of this AI-centric technology.
Yup, we’re one sentence in and AI has already made its entrance. And why now not? A temporary scan of the enormous SXSW time table illustrates that AI is on heart stage in Austin — and globally. It’s charge noting that this 365 days there looks to be an emphasis on how AI is being utilized to the precise world, now not staunch hypothesis on what it might well perchance in all probability perchance be.
SXSW tends to contemplate what the tech ecosystem of founders and backers are working on. And it continuously coincides with the hype cycle. Self sustaining autos, scooter mania, crypto, psychedelics — they’ve all had their 2d at SXSW.
The tech allotment of the annual event kicked off Friday and can elope thru March 13. The conference begins with several tracks that fall squarely in TechCrunch’s situation of passion, together with the creator economy, culture, startups, neatly being and medtech, and energy. The AI song officially begins Sunday, but it completely’s already making cameos. For instance, Signal President Meredith Whittaker, who was interviewed onstage Friday, known as out agentic AI as a security and privateness threatand a neatly being knowledgeable warned that it might well perchance in all probability be dreadful for folks to be too reliant on AI for companionship.
Deep tech love condo and quantum computing will moreover make its designate on the video display, as will climate, sustainability — seek for out for Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe’s keynote March 11 — and transportation.
Self sustaining autos are serve, but this time they’re on the boulevard — now not staunch the matter of conversation in a panel. Earlier this week, Uber and Waymo launched a robotaxi provider in Austin. The so-known as “Waymo on Uber” robotaxi provider is accessible to any member of the final public who has an Uber account. And as well you better have faith TechCrunch will be hailing these robots and chatting with human Uber drivers about what they mediate.
TechCrunch will moreover be chatting with the VCs, founders, and trade consultants at SXSW to get the heartbeat of how the tech world is adjusting to the Trump administration and, for certain, to search out the following unique unique thing. We’ll moreover be paying consideration to the a monumental series of keynotes and interviews with tech and trade luminaries, seriously Alan Baratz of D-Wave Quantum, Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon, Mountainous Biosciences founder Ben Lamm, and Arm CEO Rene Haas.
Don’t scare, we’ll enjoy a bit fun, too.
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the lengthy elope of transportation from EVs and self sustaining autos to urban air mobility and in-automotive tech for more than a decade. She is on the 2d the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is moreover co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Overview and CBS Interactive.
