SXSW 2026 Updates: See All the Highlights on the Festival's Final Day

I'm here at the airport, with leftover cold barbecue on my lap from Terry Black's in Austin. I got a lot done, but there's more I'm still thinking about from my first SXSW.

A few summary thoughts for now. A mixed bag of demos and panels. A clear sense that the future, as fast as it's coming, is disrupting even the disruptors. Everyone is wrestling with AI. No one has solutions, really. Or some do. Artists are feeling the need to be rebellious. So am I.

I held an adorable fuzzy robot at a design-for-robots panel. It made me think about connection and how locked in our mental models of the future are. I experienced the grief and shattered memories of a Dutch Holocaust survivor in Lacuna via VR headset, and felt an emotional time-delay bomb that made me cry minutes after I was out. I became a lesbian, briefly, in Lesbian Simulator. I had my body hijacked via glasses by Body Proxy. I voted with strangers on my phone in a movie theater in Escape from the Internet. I ate delicious barbecue. I met New York's network of neuroscience hackers, artists and ethicists. I turned my voice into an AI performance of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's acceptance speech via an art exhibit. I met an AR-savvy portrait artist. I talked to Meow Wolf and Niantic about possible real-world tech overlays, and listened to a Disney Accelerator panel discuss something similar. I attended a Google DeepMind-infused panel on digital ghosts in the AI afterlife. And I had more barbecue.

We're all struggling. And we're all trying to find our way forward. No answers here, but lots of questions, especially ones I'll be thinking about for a long time to come.

In a well-lit corner of SXSW's XR demo space ballroom, a series of portraits hung on glowing walls. As I approached them, the artist's voice spoke to me. Pieces of the art drifted off the frame into the room. And, sometimes, my face melted into the art, too. Suddenly, a portrait of King Charles was King Me.

Jonathan Yeo's "Spectacular" exhibition, originally debuting in Paris, was at SXSW via a partnership with Snap's Spectacles. The art exhibit uses Snap's AR glasses to explore how real art can be enhanced or played with without augmented reality taking over. 

My first time through, I thought: These are like evolved versions of those audio tour boxes you get at art museums… if those tours could also reach into the art visually, too.

I met London-based artist Jonathan Yeo in person after the exhibit and talked to him (see the video), and loved how open he was to the process of play. Yeo has explored tech in his art before, and to him, it's a part of his exploratory process. 

As he admits, it's an extension of his dream of seeing art in museums as a kid. Yeo's work shows celebrity portraits from Jony Ive to King Charles, which get gently animated and extended by AR in different ways via Snap's glasses on my face (which I had to wear contact lenses to try).

The most potentially controversial part of the exhibit involves a photo visitors take of themselves before the exhibit starts, which is then AI-generated into a Yeo-like portrait and embedded via AR into the paintings. I wave my hand and see myself as a baby or an old man overlaid on one portrait, and overlaid over King Charles on another. At the end, my portrait is framed on a wall (and everyone else sees just themselves, too). 

All visitors receive a printed souvenir portrait of themselves, digitally signed by Yeo. But isn't this AI trying to twin Yeo? According to Yeo, he'd rather own the process himself than see others try to do it -- which he sees as an increasing and inevitable threat. That provocation almost feels Dadaist to me, something like a challenge. And in a world that is filling with more AI every day, maybe it's needed.

Snap is promising its own consumer-ready AR glasses later this year. Exhibits like these are exploring how these AR glasses might be used in art museums and other public places, even if you're not likely to buy a pair. The glasses I wore are the developer versions, still chunky, with a short battery life and a limited field of view. How much better will the 2026 versions be? We'll find out.

I got an Uber across Austin to the Alamo Drafthouse, where I sat down in a big comfy seat in one of the theaters. But I wasn't seeing a film. I played a game, on my phone, interacting with the screen and people next to me. We shared our hopes and fears, and also voted on who we'd kill.

Escape The Internet (Part One) is a performance-slash-game made by Lucas Rizzotto, a provocateur artist who's been working in VR and AR for years, and a team of designers and animators. Escape the Internet was a semi-hidden part of SXSW. Rizzotto didn't even attach his name to it on the program to keep it a secret. But even though it's part of the XR program here, it doesn't use a headset. It's about being real.

Our phones connected to a private Wi-Fi link, which "took over" our devices (we used a browser link to play). We were asked to keep our silent mode off, volume up, brightness high: the opposite of any movie experience. We watched a game projected on-screen, a weird sort of brainrot-style story of cute smiley-face balls representing the audience members, labeled and named. We were escaping the rotting internet made by tech titans, heading to an island called Sanctuary, where we fell into a pit and had to journey into a dark castle together. We voted on the floor to head to, and then we had to play a game. 

And we also answered polls on our lives: Have we suffered heartbreak recently? Did we have issues trusting others? Do we feel lonely often? (Yes, for me, weirdly.)

And then we ended up playing the Trolley Game, voting on which of two things to kill. Pineapple pizza or regular? One person who shared our political views, or five who didn't? Everyone in the room, or just you?

Different playthroughs could bring us to different floors, where we'd play different games. What we discovered, narrated by Lucas Rizzotto as he stood at the front of the theater and spoke to us throughout like a performance art tour guide, revealed our tendencies and also highlighted how the internet can polarize and distance us. The game listed players who'd answered they had heartbreak, who'd lost someone and other things we said. Those people's phones glowed. We saw them. We felt for them. People next to me talked to me about my choices. I talked to them. Did we become a community over that hour? Sort of, yes.

Rizzotto wants to expand this to more parts at future festivals, and explore other ways to invite players. I loved its glitchy whimsy and sweet-yet-dark provocations. And, the way it made me feel the way I often do: I need to spend more time offline with people in real spaces, with or without phones.

It's time for the final day of SXSW, but that doesn't mean the events are getting boring. How about activism, drugs and the future of technology? Here's the full schedule and the YouTube livestream. All times here are in CT.

• 11:30 a.m.: Ibogaine in America: The Parable of Our Time, with Marcus Luttrell, Bryan Hubbard, Dr. Gul Dolen and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry discussing recent medical discoveries behind the psychedelic -- and the efforts to make it legal and accessible in the United States.
• 1 p.m.: A Conversation with Nothing's CEO and Co-Founder Carl Pei, in which the executive behind one of tech's most interesting companies will discuss big developments like hardware designed for AI and the future of consumer electronics.
• 2:30 p.m.: From Pilot to Payoff: 7 Pattern-Matched Traits of AI Systems That Actually Work: What turns AI pilot projects into actually usable systems? Former IBM and Amazon Web Services exec Sandy Carter has some ideas. 
• 4 p.m.: Say It Louder: Artists, Activism & the First Amendment: How can artists use their platforms to advocate for actual political and social change? The ACLU's Jessica Weitz will join Jane Fonda and W. Kamau Bell to explore ways for everybody to get involved.

I stripped down naked, lay on a stiff transparent bed studded with light emitters, put a plastic cannula under my nose for molecular hydrogen, and then bathed myself in red light and electromagnetic fields for 25 minutes. Did it make me feel better? I don't know. I think so.

A pit stop at a spa in the same hotel as the XR showcase at SXSW brought me to the Ammortal Chamber, a red light therapy experience you can book starting at $100 (yeah, the things that are all the rage). My social media producer Allyza Umali talked me into it.

I got comfy in a robe and slippers in the spa, then entered the room through a curtain. I felt a bit like I was getting a futuristic CAT scan (you also have to take off all metal objects and can't have a pacemaker). You can pick relaxing or energizing sessions, or a mix of both (my choice).

I wore light-blocking mini-goggles to help with the bright light, and boy oh boy, I had no idea how bright it would be. Even with my eyes closed, I felt overwhelmed. It felt like a calm boat ride into the sun.

I eventually succumbed, tried to relax and breathe to the gentle music and smell the aromatherapy, and feel the jets of air around me. I simmered there in the warm-ish experience. And then, after adjusting, it was over. I sat up (slowly). And…felt tingly? Calm? Sort of like I'd been washed in the sun. Is this ok? Am I OK? I got dressed, and yes, I felt calm. And good. Is this a placebo effect? I have no idea. But the rest of my day had a good and energized flow. Maybe I should thank the Chamber of the Red Sun. I don't think I'd ever do it again, but I'm glad to have sampled the experience and the absurdity.

Is the data center half full or half empty?

Many of the discussions at SXSW focused on this duality: techno-pessimism (or a techno-apocalypse) versus techno-optimism. David Friedberg, CEO of Ohalo, an agricultural tech company, took the stage alongside Spotify's co-CEO, Gustav Söderström, to discuss the future of AI and creativity. 

You can count Friedberg among the optimists. 

"We spend all this time thinking about how we're going to die, and what's going to kill us, and what's coming next, and we don't talk enough about how exciting tomorrow is going to be," Friedberg said on stage as the panel was wrapping up. 

"The fear of tomorrow is what makes everyone turn against each other. Because as soon as you're fearful about tomorrow, you have a reason to blame someone around you, and that's why we are all like this (Friedberg gestured with his two fists knocking together) all the time," he said. "And I think it's very bad. It's very unhealthy. It goes to a dark place. And so I want us to all be optimistic about tomorrow, and be realistic, but be optimistic about tomorrow, so that we're not all at each other's throats all the time."

I just spent four days on the ground in Austin, Texas, reporting on SXSW, and I keep coming back to the same phrase: It was good chaos.

It was the kind of chaos where my phone was at 3% as I was speed-walking to a panel I was already running late for, while somehow also conducting an interview with an arepa in one hand and the notes app open in the other (true story). The 14- to 20-hour work days blurred together in the best way -- exhausting, energizing and exactly what I hoped it would be.

What made it worth it wasn't just the pace, but the people. 

I got to pick the brains of industry experts and sit in rooms with some genuinely fascinating voices -- from Spotify executives to BuzzFeed's co-founders, Mark Cuban to Hayley Williams, among many others. There's something about hearing those perspectives in real time, in that environment, that sharpens your own thinking. I left feeling not just inspired, but more grounded in the kind of reporting I want to do, especially when it comes to AI.

I'm no longer in the middle of it all, darting between venues in downtown Austin, but the story isn't over. My brilliant colleague, Scott Stein, is still on the ground, and I'll be finishing out the final stretch remotely, with longer, more thoughtful analysis pieces coming soon.

For now, I'm catching my breath, sorting through pages of notes and already missing the chaos -- the good kind.

I spent a magical 20 minutes or so inside Fabula Rasa: Dead Man Talking, a VR experience at this year's SXSW that whimsically stuck me in a medieval fantasy nightmare with weird animated characters. But these characters chatted with me using generative AI.

The plot is simple: I'm thrown in prison, for a crime I suggest like an improv sketch to my jailor. I also pick my identity (a magician, who was charged with improperly deceiving people at a wedding). I'm then suspended in a cage over the pit of a big-mouthed, cartoonish, dragon-monster-thing. And then I'm left to try to beg for my life with whoever comes up to my cage in the town square.

I chat when I make eye contact, saying whatever I like. After a pause, the characters respond: on point, reactively, and like an AI chat… but what wowed me is how it all just worked. Characters were ridiculous and legitimately funny (like a goblin who kept visiting me and trying to "help" by bringing me terrible solutions to my problems, like a drawing of a key instead of a key). A dour man on a bench watches me the whole time, and when I keep chatting with him, he admits he just likes watching people get tortured.

I convince the king to release me and try to trick others to sneak my way out. It felt like improv, at a time delay. The frantic sort of overwritten style of the AI responses worked for the character types, in part because the game was made with an actual writing team that scripted the experience to work alongside AI (using Claude). 

It's one of the better examples I've ever seen of AI and actual writing feeling like something nonterrible. And the team used the AI's scatterbrained style of responses to their advantage for character comedy. It was good stuff! And I forgot that in my booth, where I experienced the game, spectators were welcomed to listen in to my performance with headphones. It truly did make me feel like I was living a bit of an improv VR life.

It's the second-to-last day of SXSW, but there are still two sessions you can tune into remotely. Check out the full schedule and the YouTube livestreams. Times are in CT.

• 10 a.m.: The Three Laws of a Healthy Relationship with author Devi Brown, relationship expert Jillian Turecki and author Case Kenny.
• 1 p.m.: Keynote: Make Your Own Wave: TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson will speak with multi-hyphenate artist, author and co-founder Russ on independence and building a modern career as an artist, in all its many forms. 

For about half an hour at SXSW, I lived a lesbian life. In a VR headset. 

A game and experience called Lesbian Simulator was one of many XR installations at this year's SXSW, and I won't forget it. A Dutch VR project directed by Iris van der Meule, made for Meta Quest 3/3S, the self-described "artistic ode to love and sexual preference" has a hand-drawn look that feels like big brush strokes, with characters that have simple, line-drawn happy (and sometimes sad) faces. I do too.

Dancing in a club, I handed drinks to shy, hand-drawn, animated women who shyly made eye contact with me. I opened doors to little scenes where I had to come out to my grandmother, to a friend, to the world. I went on a date where everyone stared at us, and I learned to accept it. This game, modeled in a sense like the classic game Job Simulator, is hand-crafted with big, hand-drawn art in a silly and whimsical style. Inside my self-made lesbian body, I complete mini-games to collect carabiners. By the end, at the end of a Pride parade, I celebrate.

Lesbian Simulator is a gentle game and a comforting walk through self-expression, and possibly could be someone's first way of experiencing their own sexual identity in a VR headset someday. Its welcoming, absurd, sincere style felt like a warm embrace. And yet, a challenge. I was glad to take a few steps in different virtual shoes. VR's best quality is the ability to transport us to other realms of embodiment, making us feel like we're living another life. Lesbian Simulator, even with its name, makes this idea both a whimsical fantasy and a very real thing at the same time. And yes, I felt loved. It felt great.

But one moment in the coming-out rooms will stick with me a while. The narrator reminded my character that often coming out isn't done once. It's done over and over again. 

Up a long hill, 20 minutes from downtown Austin, I went on a field trip to a hilltop site where a big tent building withstood the high morning winds. Inside, there was a massive holodeck. I'd soon be walking through future Four Seasons villas that are planned for construction on that same site.

Built by a company called Agile Lens alongside partners DBOX and Pureblink, this holodeck uses embedded tracking sensors in the ceiling and Meta Quest Pro headsets with added tracking equipment on top. The experience was absolutely stunning: a room full of computers handled rendering of extremely high-resolution 3D builds of the future property, from villas to a sports and fitness zone, to a sports bar and private theater, to a lobby so realistically detailed that I could lean down and read the text on the cocktail menus next to glasses that bent light just they would in reality.

Everything wasn't real: it was 3D-rendered. But the experience can handle multiple people at a time, all walking across a space so large that I forgot there were even walls. Occasionally, the experience was mapped to actual sofas and chairs we'd sit on as if we were in the lobby, or in the theater. The purpose of this build is to sell real estate for very expensive future villas. The experience was good enough that I felt a powerful urge to live in these spaces that don't yet exist.

Agile Lens also has a large-scale holodeck space with DBOX at their NYC office next to City Hall that I still haven't visited, but now I'm going to make sure I do it soon. 

CNET's Scott Stein spoke at the Meow Wolf and Niantic Spatial panel he hosted on Sunday about what the future of XR could look like -- smart glasses, AI and much more.

An anti-Elon Musk vending machine arrived on the streets of Austin for SXSW 2026. While the team behind the machine is unknown, the installation seems to be a protest of the Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI leader, as his AI chatbot, Grok, has been undergoing global investigations for generating nude images of children and millions of sexualized images. 

Good Dye Young co-founders Hayley Williams and Brian O'Connor joined a panel at Inc.'s Founders House to talk about entrepreneurship and the creative economy. Williams, also known for being the Paramore frontwoman, and O'Connor spoke on the panel "Going Platinum: Lessons in Turning Cool Into Capital," where the conversation focused on how creators can translate personal passions into sustainable businesses. Williams spoke about the origins of Good Dye Young and how her longtime love of hair color and self-expression naturally evolved into a brand.

During the discussion, Williams emphasized that she never wanted Good Dye Young to function as a typical celebrity brand tied primarily to her music career. Instead, she said the goal was always to build a company that stood on its own, with the product and creative community at the center rather than her role in Paramore. 

The themes continued in her appearance at the Create & Cultivate Future Summit, where she discussed creative independence, her journey from music into business and the importance of mentorship for emerging founders and artists.

At a panel led by MasterClass CEO David Rogier, the conversation about AI and storytelling challenged the usual narrative about productivity and cost-cutting. The real shift, he said on stage, is personalization, or using AI to "codify" what actually makes a story work and deliver it to "an audience of one."

Rogier said personalization doesn't actually require building thousands of rigid audience archetypes; it just means getting closer to the individual experience.

The rules for creators are different now, and accepting that is key. What once felt strange or experimental is quickly becoming normal, especially as people grow more comfortable interacting with AI. Rogier said his guiding question is simple. He asks, would this have been impossible to make yesterday? If the answer is yes, you're probably exploring the real creative frontier of AI.

Interested in the future of news and media? Monday is the day for you at SXSW. Day 5 has plenty of livestreams for the media nerd. The full livestream schedule is here, and you can watch on YouTube, too. Times here are in CT.

• 10 a.m.: Shit You Should Care About: Live, with a look inside the online media brand from CEO Lucy Blakiston. She'll talk through how the brand grew out of a simple group chat.
• 11:30 a.m.: The Future of News, with editors and leaders from The Guardian, The New York Times and Newsweek discussing the reasons why news coverage is essential -- with a focus on why marketers and advertisers should support journalism.
• 1 p.m.: Nature Speaks. Can AI Help Us Listen?: Earth Species Project co-founder Aza Raskin will explore how AI can decode the languages of other creatures, showing how complex communication really is. 
• 2:30 p.m.: Trusted, Valued, Essential: Why PBS is Here to Stay, With or Without Federal Funding, with PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger in a fireside chat about the future of the venerable public television institution -- and why it's worth saving.
• 4 p.m.: Actionable Ikigai: Career Planning in the age of AI, with University of Notre Dame futurist Mike Bechtel exploring how you can use AI to discover a career path that might actually make you happy.

We're rounding out Day 4 of SXSW with a line-up that's focused on making sure technology serves humans, not the other way around. You can watch these sessions live on YouTube. All times are CT.

• 10 a.m.: The Guardian in Conversation with Mahmoud Khalil on the Cost of Dissent: The Columbia graduate will speak about his pro-Palestinian activism, his experience being targeted and detained by the Trump administration and "the personal and political stakes of resistance."
• 1 p.m.: Keynote: Why the Future of AI Must be Human Centric with Rana el Kaliouby and Bob Safian is all about balancing humanity with the economic opportunities of AI.
• 2 p.m.: Community, Culture and the Future of Entertainment with Matt Strauss and Andy Cohen are probably the best people to talk about building fandoms and driving cultural conversations in the streaming era.
• 4 p.m.: Reclaiming Our Humanity in the Age of AI with tech heavyweights, including author Karen Hao, founder and AI bias expert Timnit Gerbu and MacArthur Foundation president John Palfrey.

Vince Gilligan -- creator and showrunner of acclaimed TV shows Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and most recently Pluribus -- took the stage at SXSW Saturday to discuss returning to Albuquerque with the new show. Gilligan was joined by Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus' Carol and Better Call Saul's Kim), composer Dave Porter, costume designer Jennifer Bryan and producer Trina Siopy to discuss the collaborative process of creating another hit series in the same city. 

While the shows are all set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and many of the people involved in the shows have been working together for more than a decade, there is a distinct difference to Pluribus: Gilligan was ready to write a hero. 

"I don't want to have a beer with Walter White. Walter White's an asshole," Gilligan said on stage. "Saul Goodman, I'd probably want to have a beer with him, but he's not a great guy. He has an arc where he redeems himself a bit in that last episode of Better Call Saul, but these are not people to root for, for the most part."

He went on to say that after 20 years of writing "bad guys," he was ready for something else, deciding that Pluribus' main character, Carol Sturka, was written to have a hero's journey. 

"I think we need more good guys in the world," Gilligan said. "I think we, in real life, need more. And maybe I'm part of the problem, if fiction helped in any way to motivate or excuse bad behavior in the real world -- in any small, infinitesimal little way. 

"If the era of anti-heroes helped to smooth the passage of the real-life ones, I'm all for writing good guys from here on fucking out."

Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis, best known for being a "scream queen" in horror classics like the Halloween franchise, took the stage at SXSW Saturday afternoon. Known for her dynamic energy and humor, Curtis joined the panel to discuss all things producing, filmmaking, manifesting and the new Prime Video series Scarpetta, in which she stars alongside Nicole Kidman. 

Toward the end of the hour-long panel, Curtis stressed the need for human connection amid rapid AI adoption. 

"We need each other," she said. "And we're in a society that's telling us we don't need each other. We're in a society that's telling us that we can rely on technology.

"Raise your pinky if you've had an interaction with an AI that feels real to you and that you've made a relationship with an AI. They're not real. They don't care about you. They don't care. They never will care about you, ever. They will not cry when you die."

I wore a pair of Meta Oakley glasses in a room full of familiar objects on shelves, like one of those many smart glasses demos I've done to test AI features with companies like Google and Meta. But this time, a mischievous voice guided me to take a dollar bill out of a drawer and shred it. Did I comply? Oh, maybe I was a good match for Body Proxy.

Body Proxy, created by gaming and XR developer Tender Claws, is an experimental location-based experience for glasses that plays with the idea of agency and how much we trust AI on glasses. Here, it's an art experience running on a phone that taps into Meta's camera and speakers to have you do things and become a Body Proxy for AI. In other words, my actions fulfill the AI's fantasies.

I found myself commanded around a small room, then made to take an IPO test to see if my body was capable of being used in the market as physical labor for AI. It was absurd and fun, much like Tender Claws' other XR experiences, like Virtual Virtual Reality. I got a long receipt at the end with a QR code that shows me my performance stats and captured video highlights.

I want more of this. Art needs to shake up smart glasses, and Body Proxy is a great flex for an otherwise VR-focused showcase at SXSW.

Amy Webb -- a futurist and founder of Future Today Strategy Group, known for its annual tech trends report -- announced on stage at SXSW the death of the report.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate and remember the life of the trend report," Webb said. She was dressed in black as somber music played over the speakers, making all 1,000+ attendees participate in a mock funeral. 

Webb said the annual report is too static a format for the tech landscape that is rapidly changing at breakneck speed. Rather than focusing on shifting trends, she said, companies should instead pay attention to when trends collide, like the "convergences" of AI, robotics, geopolitics and more. These are the structural changes worth noting. 

"Trends tells you what's changing," Webb said. "A convergence tells you what's going to become inevitable."

On Saturday, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince led a panel on how the web is changing in the age of AI and the growing popularity of AI agents. Prince said that in the near future, we won't be focused on who uses the internet, but "what" uses the internet. 

"With the rise of generative AI and its just insatiable need for data, we're seeing a rise where we suspect that in 2027 the amount of bot traffic online will exceed the amount of human traffic that's online," Prince said. "If a human were doing a task, say they were shopping for a digital camera, you might go to five websites. Your agent, or the bot that's [shopping for you], will often go to a thousand times the number of sites an actual human would visit. And that's real traffic and that's real load, which everyone is having to deal with." 

In addition to its JBL Live series headphones, JBL is also debuting the EasySing Mic Mini ($180) with AI capabilities. 

CNET got an exclusive first look at the device at the JBL LIVEbrary at SXSW 2026. The portable mic will be available in May 2026.

At SXSW 2026, JBL debuted new headphones: JBL Live 780NC over-ear ($249.95) and JBL Live 680NC on-ear headphones ($159.95). These headphones are available to order now at JBL.com, with product shipping starting on March 15. 

Both headphones can be purchased in blue, green, champagne, black and white. 

After seeing The All-American Rejects play an electric set for a packed crowd Thursday night, the pace and energy were entirely different the following afternoon, sitting in a conference room at the JW Marriott as the band took questions during a panel session. 

The band has been going viral in the past year for bucking the stadium-tour-charging-fans-$400-a-ticket-LiveNation-queue nightmare that has become concert-going in the 2020s. Instead, they've been playing in bowling alleys, fields and, yes, houses -- all spaces that were volunteered by the owners to be used as a concert venue. 

"Give me house parties any day of the week," frontman Tyson Ritter said. 

The band has been working outside the industry, releasing their upcoming fifth studio album in May as independent artists, and showing that the trend of charging hundreds of dollars for tickets has made concert-going inaccessible. They're turning heads. When asked by panel host Nathan Lankford, founder of music label ATH Records, if they think they may be a target of industry backlash, the band members were pretty clear.

"We don't give a shit," lead guitarist Nick Wheeler responded quickly. 

"I hope so!" Ritter quipped. "I love to hear the piggies squeal." 

No wonder they're one of my favorite bands.

During the SXSW panel hosted by Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström on Friday afternoon, he teased a feature soon rolling out to Spotify listeners: Song DNA. This would be a feature that, in his words, "meticulously" tracks every person involved in making a song, even listing which samples it uses. 

Read also: AI-Recommended Music? Spotify Is Giving You the Power to Personalize

It's time for Day 3 of SXSW, and the activities don't stop for the weekend. Tech and entertainment are on deck with today's big livestreams. You can tune in live on YouTube. All times are in CT.

• 9:45 a.m.: Amy Webb Launches 2026 Emerging Tech Trend Report: The NYU Stern professor and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group will unveil her report on what technology to watch out for in 2026. The theme this year? Creative Destruction.
• 11:30 a.m.: Albuquerque Aftermath: From Breaking Bad to Pluribus with Rhea Seehorn, Vince Gilligan, and Key Creatives: The creators of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Pluribus will talk through the processes that brought the hit shows to life. I wonder if someone will ask about The X-Files…
• 1 p.m.: Sympathetic Magic -- How to Get Other People to Believe in Your Vision By First Believing in Yourself: Artist Tom Sachs works in many different forms, from sculpture and ceramics to painting and film. He'll talk about the journey that takes art from initial ideas to its final exhibit.
• 2:30 p.m.: Jamie Lee Curtis. If Not Now, When, if Not Me, Who? Pivoting and Manifesting!: The actress and producer said in the description submitted to SXSW to expect a "conversation on how I am now a boss at 67!"
• 4 p.m.: How Crypto is Building New Capital Markets for Everyone, not just Wall Street: Explore shifts in the cryptocurrency world with speakers who'll discuss how the new crypto landscape changes the ways creators can access investment capital.

"One of my theses for this entire show is that there's no 'I don't know why I just like it.' There's always a deeper emotional connection to food," said chef and Last Meals host Josh Scherer.

Scherer did a live episode of his Last Meals show featuring creators Tefi Pessoa, Keith Lee and Elyse Myers. The episode followed Sherer's iconic style, interspersing thoughtful interview questions with passionate food debate. The group talked about everything from mental health challenges to the right way to drink a smoothie.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube. This is what Pessoa, Lee and Myers would choose as their last meals.

Tefi Pessoa: Start with an extra-dirty martini with blue cheese olives, and a glass of very dry white wine. Appetizers are pretzel bread rolls (no sauce) and a shrimp cocktail. Main entree is a ribeye steak ("Medium rare, of course, because I'm not an animal. I'm just eating one"), mashed potatoes, side salad. Junior's New York cheesecake for dessert.

Keith Lee: Simple is best with water and lemonade (not too sour, not too sweet), with rosemary truffle fries and Nigiri (specifically bluefin tuna from Portland, OR) for appetizers. Entree should be a 10-oz ribeye medium-rare with truffle butter, asparagus ("I don't trust a lot of people's mashed potatoes… I don't like things you can eat without teeth"). Dessert is fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies with Blue Bell vanilla bean ice cream. 

Elyse Myers: To begin, a Ketel One vodka soda, with appetizers of hamachi yellow tail and crispy tuna rice. Entree is once again a ribeye ("If I'm getting a steak, don't waste my time with anything else"), and for dessert, banana split Dippin' Dots ice cream.

AI is doing more than affecting how creators make their art. It's making it easier to impersonate famous artists. Country music artist Lainey Wilson, during a panel hosted by Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström, said she's been partnering with a company called Loti that identifies social media accounts and posts that impersonate her and gets them taken down.

"I think technology has done a lot for the music business. I think it's always pushed creativity," Wilson said. "But it's a scary world we're living in. You just never know how [scammers] are going to use your face or your voice. And the truth is… [it's] important for me to feel like anytime my fans see something, it's really Lainey Wilson saying it to them. I want them to feel like they can trust me." 

"I just want to keep that relationship with my fans the way I want it to be: genuine and pure and authentic," she said. 

Director Steven Spielberg is talking about his creative process and promoting his upcoming UFO film Disclosure Day, out June 12. (You can stream the event here.) But between discussions of alien abductions and filmmaking, he brought up why he doesn't have a social media presence.

"I'm not on any of these things, by the way," Spielberg told podcast host Sean Fennessey. "Not that I have any kind of a personal thing to it, it's just that it eats up the clock. I put Instagram on my phone for two weeks, and I had missing time as if I had been abducted by aliens."

I would suggest he check out the Brick, which I use to keep Instagram from stealing my time. But maybe it's best just not to download the apps to begin with.

"I never started out wanting to win 23 Grand Slams. I wanted to win the US Open, and then I made that scalable," joked Serena Williams, managing partner of investment firm Serena Ventures, at SXSW.

Typically, panels made up of venture capitalists focus on profits and returns on investment. But with tennis legend Serena Williams as Reckitt Catalyst's entrepreneur-in-residence, the conversation centered on how funding tech startups could drive tangible community impact. 

Another panelist included Mika Eddy, the co-founder of Malama Health, a community-based telehealth company that connects pregnant people with local doulas and remote-monitoring tech to support them during their pregnancy and postpartum. Malama, which means "care" in Hawaiian, aims to improve maternal health outcomes. 

Eddy said she was inspired to build the company after watching her OB-GYN grandmother care for patients in rural Japan while growing up.

"The US was truly not built for healthy outcomes for women, and particularly if you do not have privilege or a platform, oftentimes these outcomes are left to chance," said Eddy. "We built Malama in order to help fill the gaps."

Also on the panel was Kwamane Liddell, an emergency department nurse who founded Thrivelink to help patients across the country find the housing, medication and other vital social service resources. The company is focused on accessibility -- you don't need the internet, smartphones or reading skills to use it. For example, Thrivelink uses AI voice tech rather than relying on text, which may be harder for some patients to use. Liddell's uncle, who had a stroke and was part of the inspiration for Thrivelink.

"People might not be able to text or type within the app, but they can say their address," said Liddell. "So we built a telephonic AI agent that allows people to talk. Since then, we've helped thousands of families access healthy food."

Health tech, venture capitalism and policy have a long, complicated history in the US. Health technology is often designed to fill gaps or address major issues left by the health care and insurance industries. Big companies in the AI revolution, such as OpenAI, Amazon and Microsoft, are also building health AI tools along with startups like Malama and Thrivelink.  

On stage at SXSW, Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced a new feature that lets you shape and personalize your Taste Profile in the app, seemingly signaling a step away from relying solely on AI-generated playlists. 

"Taste is not a fact," Söderström said. "It's an opinion."

Currently, Taste Profile uses AI algorithms to understand your listening history and recommend songs, albums, artists and genres. Now, you can shape your preferences and fine-tune what you see in playlists, such as Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes and Wrapped playlists. So, if you want more of The All-American Rejects (who doesn't?), you can type the name in the app to get more of the band and similar artists. The idea is that over time, you'll be able to curate your music preferences and recommendations. 

The All-American Rejects lead singer Tyson Ritter told us to "step inside his time machine" as he took us back to the early 2000s by playing hits from their 2005 album Move Along at Thursday night's SXSW Music Opening Party. 

This was a particular kind of time travel. The opening notes of an old song begin, and suddenly, everyone at the venue becomes former versions of ourselves, and we're taken back to when we first heard that song and the moments of our lives that were soundtracked by this band's music. A man in front of me was telling his partner about playing It Ends Tonight at his school talent show, while I was telling CNET Senior Social Media Producer Allyza Umali about the band posters I had in my room growing up. Briefly, it was back to the early 2000s. 

Then the band turned to new songs to promote their upcoming fifth studio album, which Ritter said they finished two days ago. The moment shifted: The past was still echoing, but it's breathing new air. Each throwback song was the band telling us the fans we were here, and each new song is telling us we're still becoming. Between the bookends of nostalgia and novelty, I got to experience the endurance of a band over 20 years of continuity. Not just the band and their music, but of our own lives moving alongside it. 

Ritter and the rest of the band will take the stage again at SXSW Friday to talk about their House Party Tour -- when they took their show to new venues, like skate parks and backyards. It'll be on YouTube at 2:30 p.m. CT.

It's my first trip to Austin, or to SXSW: My only previous one was a virtual fireside chat with Meta's Mark Rabkin during the pandemic in 2021. While my colleagues, including Macy Meyer, are already there, I'm flying in Saturday and staying until next Wednesday. 

I'm expecting to get more than my fill of AI discourse and good BBQ, but I have other missions there, too. For one, I'm part of a panel with Meow Wolf and Niantic Spatial called Reality Hacked: Tech, Story, and the Future of Experience. Meow Wolf Founder Vince Kladubek and Niantic's Dennis Hwang will be discussing the experiments with AR and tech infusions that are being explored in Meow Wolf's current and future installations, along with Kati Murphy and me.

I've been fascinated with Meow Wolf's immersive work for years, and its future LA and New York locations are still in development. But right now, experimenting with tech and AI and AR in contained art installations feels like the best way to explore and challenge ideas that smart glasses, AI wearables, and even robots are aspiring to. Physical AI is trying to make the real world and AI blend, and augmented reality is another facet of that puzzle. I just visited another immersive experience in Philadelphia, The Ministry of Awe, that blended some aspects of AI interfaces into its exhibits. Everyone's trying to figure out what the possibilities are and how to do it in safe pieces.

I'm also going to dive into some VR and AR experiences there, and look at whatever emerging tech I can find. I'm also hunting down neurotech, an area I expect to keep growing as sensors like EMG and EEG, and eye-tracking cameras, evolve into more wearables.

The biggest question I have about AI right now is how its interfaces should evolve for new devices and apps, wearable and otherwise. Besides the slop it puts out, AI feels sloppy to access. No glasses or wearables I've seen have gotten the idea of an "AI interface" right. Are ideas ready to emerge, or is it still too soon?

I'll keep popping back in with more thoughts and things I see as I find them. Also on the hunt for immersive activations at SXSW, too.

CNET Senior Social Media Producer Allyza Umali (left) and Writer Macy Meyer (right) before they hopped in the new Rivian R2 for a joyride. Keep scrolling to read how it went and what Rivian's chief engineer had to say about the electric SUV.

Day 2 of SXSW is happening now, and today's livestreaming schedule is emblematic of the festival's collision of technology and culture. You can tune in to these sessions live on YouTube. All times are in CT.

• 10 a.m.: Turning Audience Signals into AI-Powered Commerce: Phia cofounders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni will share how they built their AI shopping app to fit this new age of AI commerce.

• 11:30 a.m.: Breaking Barriers, Building Solutions: Meet the Changemakers Transforming Health Innovation with tennis legend Serena Williams should be all about reshaping the future of community health.

• 2:30 p.m.: A Conversation with The All-American Rejects: There are no dirty little secrets here. Tyson Ritter and his bandmates are slated to talk about how artists can build community-driven events, like their 2025 House Party Tour, which featured shows in backyards and skateparks.

• 4 p.m.: Last Meals Live with Mythical Kitchen Chef Josh: Watch live as Josh Scherer does his signature in-depth interviews with Tefi Pessoa, Keith Lee and Elyse Myers while they eat what each would choose to be their last meal.

One thing about me, I like to go fast. Really fast. Concerningly fast. And thanks to Rivian's new R2 lineup, we can go 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. 

I piled into one of Rivian's sleek new R2 midsize electric SUVs with a CNET social producer and the R2's chief engineer, Max Koff. (I wasn't driving.) We went as fast as we could go while taking a joyride in the middle of downtown Austin, Texas. 

Rivian assembled huge piles of dirt in the middle of N. Congress Avenue to create an off-roading experience that showcases the R2's dexterity and ability to drive on all types of terrain. From cruising through the busy streets of Austin to taking an incline at a 30-degree angle to plunging straight down a huge hill rollercoaster-style (yes, my stomach dropped), Rivian's new model was smooth and, well, really dang fun to ride in.

Before I hopped into the back seat for a showcase of the dynamic, precise driving experience, I met with Wassym Bensaid, Rivian's chief software officer, for an in-person demo of the new software updates and features. 

Bensaid told me about Rivian's new in-cabin AI assistant. But I was also impressed by the new Haptic Halo Wheels -- dials built into the steering wheel capable of scrolling, pushing, pulling and tilting -- and the large, sleek center screen, designed to be easy to use for driver and passenger. I think my favorite new feature, though, was a camera that lets you check in on your pet in the back seat. Yeah, that's awesome.

Movie buffs have a lot to look forward to this week at SXSW. Documentaries, romance, comedy, horror and drama flicks are all set to make their debuts at the festival. Our friends at CNET's sibling site Mashable break down 17 movies attendees shouldn't miss. 

If you're not attending SXSW this year, you'll have to wait a while before you can get a chance to see many of these movies, as it can take time before films move from the festival circuit to theaters. Some, however, are available soon. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, Pretty Lethal and They Will Kill You all receive theatrical releases later this month. 

It's Day 1 of SXSW in Austin, but you don't have to be in Texas to enjoy it. You can watch several conference sessions live on YouTube. Here's what's on the schedule today (all times are CT):

• 9:30 a.m.: Welcome to SXSW with the event's head of programming, Greg Rosenbaum. 
• 10 a.m.: Moonshots that Move the Needle: A panel discussion on helping develop technological innovations and programs aimed at teaching and learning. 
• 11:30 a.m.: Strategy in the Times of Chaos: Imagining Futures of Education. Experts will discuss ways of "building more just and equitable futures."
• 1 p.m.: Keynote: Jennifer B. Wallace: The bestselling author will talk about mattering, our need as humans to "feel valued and add value" as a key to wellbeing. 
• 2:30 p.m.: How to Support Resilient Youth in an AI World: AI experts, including Google DeepMind's Miriam Schneider, will discuss how AI is changing how young people learn and develop. 
• 4 p.m.: Social Health Trends & Predictions: Connection is the New Frontier. Author Kasley Killam will explore the future of our social relationships. 

It's hard for me to picture what my world looked like before the advent of computers in our pockets, the constant routine of toggling between apps and scrolling through endless notifications. We live our lives inside the attention economy -- and never really step out of it. 

That's the tension the new documentary Your Attention Please confronts, premiering this week at SXSW. 

I got to speak with director Sara Robin, alongside Trisha Prabhu, a participant in the documentary and the inventor of the anti-cyberbullying technology ReThink, about the film. We discussed the process of making the documentary, how social media rewired what we value as humans and how AI is exacerbating the anxieties already brought about by the digital age. You can read my full story on Your Attention Please here. 

SXSW starts Thursday and runs through March 18. It takes place in Austin across dozens of venues, from big downtown hotels to small music venues.

SXSW is actually several events in one. There's a music festival, a film and TV festival, a comedy festival and an education conference. SXSW 2025 drew more than 300,000 people across all of the events. 

Want to see what's happening at SXSW yourself? The full schedule is available on the website, but much of the programming is limited to on-site attendees who paid for a pass.

Not everything is exclusive to those in Austin, however. You can watch live streams of several events each day, especially keynotes and featured sessions with some of the biggest names. That schedule is here, and streams will be available on YouTube and other platforms. 

I'm not making the trip to Austin this year, but I was there last year, where I heard a lot of discussion about AI. So much AI. I spoke with experts grappling with the future of this technology and listened to panel discussions about the risks posed by superintelligence and synthetic data. 

I wondered: Can AI and human creativity get along? While some are using the technology to explore new artistic avenues, others see it as competition -- tech that's stealing their work for training data.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, posed a critical question for AI developers when it comes to creating systems users can trust: "Who does it work for?"

While many conversations around AI dealt with how it'll affect the workplace, Nickle LaMoreaux, the chief human resources officer at IBM, said the result will likely be that workers will be judged more on the things only a human can do. 

Sometimes the thing that makes news isn't what a person says. Then-Bluesky CEO Jay Graber took a jab at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg without saying his name -- just a carefully and cleverly designed T-shirt. Mashable's Chance Townsend had the story. 

Austin is known for its barbecue, live music and vibrant, lively atmosphere. It's also known for its ideas, which are as tempting to me as the brisket I'm hoping to devour. 

I'm heading to SXSW this week for the first time. I imagine there'll be a distinct pulse to the city, a palpable electricity that everyone who visits can feel, especially when a massive global event is underway. And between the premieres and panels, and concerts and crowds, I'm hoping to stumble on the next big innovation that will shape our world. 

AI will likely be a focal point, but I'm also expecting to see a true intersection of human connection, art and technology. SXSW has always been a melting pot: directors and actors sharing sidewalks with tech founders, musicians hauling guitars past venture capitalists and comedians, and journalists like me trying to keep up with everything. (And believe me, I'll try my very best to keep up.) 

That collision is the true magic of SXSW. 

I'm especially ready to hear about the path of creative storytelling and emerging tech in 2026. How are artists and innovators finessing the AI evolution? How are they trying to reshape how these tools will be used, rather than letting the tools reshape them? 

I'm also jittery for discovery. Which documentary will break open a viral discussion? Which celebrity guest is going to generate the most buzz? What offhand comment in a panel is going to shape headlines for the next few days? 

SXSW has more to see and do than I can reasonably aim to cover in just a few days. I'm told it's chaotic, overwhelming, exhausting, exhilarating and energizing. And that's exactly where I need to be. I can't wait.