The community has voted and the PanelPicker sessions are here. Get a first look at some of the top trending themes that focus on how business leaders, Tech and AI professionals, and curious creatives are driving innovation and transformation across the globe. Can the extended use of AI negatively impact brain health? What are some of the secrets that marketing leaders have learned to level up? What can we do about losing control over AI, and so much more.
Nearly a third of PanelPicker proposals touched on AI, reflecting an ongoing fascination and concern with the implementation of Artificial Intelligence. The Innovation Conference speaks to a wide array of industries, however, highlighting the latest trends and developments in Design, Sports & Gaming, and the Creator Economy, just to name a few. Take a look here to catch a quick teaser of some of the Innovation sessions coming your way during the SXSW Innovation Conference. These conversations are meant to engage, inform and inspire you, so keep checking the SXSW® schedule for all the latest updates.
PanelPicker® Innovation Sessions Highlights
How We Could Lose Control: Avoiding the Paths to Runaway AI
When experts talk about AI risks, they often talk about the loss of human control – but what does that actually mean? And how could it happen? In this fireside chat, physicist Anthony Aguirre and tech ethicist Tristan Harris go beyond surface-level alarm to map out the real mechanisms that could lead humanity to be sidelined by its own creation. From opaque incentives and design choices to systemic misalignment and power concentration, they’ll unpack how humans could lose control over AI and what can still be done to prevent it.
Speakers include: Tristan Harris - Co-founder, Center for Humane Technology, Anthony Aguirre - Executive Director, Future of Life Institute
Corporate Dark Arts: The Real Rules of Marketing Power
This panel cracks open a vault of 60+ anonymous confessions from marketing leaders all over the world who've survived the C-suite by honing a new set of under-the-radar corporate superpowers. They evolved, not by fighting the forces of doubt, but by flipping them—using ambiguity as leverage, tension as traction, and absurdity as armor. What they faced first, every role faces now.
Speakers include: Dominic Leung - Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation, Monigle, Melissa Grady Dias - Chief Marketing Officer, Cadillac, Jon Evans - Chief Customer Officer & Host at System 1 Group & The Uncensored CMO
Lose Your Mind to AI? A Neuroscientist and an AI CEO Debate
AI can be your most powerful productivity tool… or a shortcut to cognitive decline. Neuroscientist Dr. Sahar Yousef and AI education company CEO Greg Shove debate the ultimate question: “AI feels like borrowing 30 IQ points, but will it ultimately make us dumber?” They will share new, unpublished UC Berkeley data showing that most “AI augmentation” is shallow cognitive offloading in disguise and outline a research-backed playbook for HOW you can leverage AI without losing what makes you most valuable: your mind.
Speakers include: Greg Shove - CEO, Section, Dr. Sahar Yousef - Cognitive Neuroscientist and Faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business; Founder and Managing Director, Becoming Superhuman
Humanoid Robots Are Clocking In: Meet Who’s Putting Them to Work
You’ve seen the viral humanoid demos—now meet the people actually shipping them. From hospitals to warehouses, humanoid robots are already on shift. They ride elevators, open doors, and work alongside people in busy environments. But making that leap from prototype to real-world, reliable performance? It’s hard. This panel brings together renowned founders and researchers who’ve built and deployed some of the first real humanoids at scale. Join us for a behind-the-scenes conversation about what's working, what’s not, and what it really takes to get robots out of the lab and into the world.
Speakers include: Jeff Cardenas - Co-founder & CEO, Apptronik, Andrea Thomaz - Co-founder & CEO, Diligent Robotics, Jonathon Hurst - Co-founder & Chief Robot Officer, Agility Robotics, Peter Stone - Professor of Computer Science and Chief Scientist, University of Texas and SonyAI
Be sure to check out the latest sessions per track to start planning your SXSW® schedule!
