Ahead of @SXSW later this week, today's @BigTechnology newsletter looks at some of the many AI-related themes, talks and news to expect. This year's “Tech & AI” track makes up almost a third of the SXSW’s featured sessions. See the thread for more from @Kantrowitz and me in this
CULTURE
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Memetic Evolution: How Cultural Transmission Shaped Human Dominance
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What you are describing sounds like memetic evolution (cultural evolution). Genetic evolution is vertical (parent→child, slow). Memetic evolution is horizontal – agents teaching agents, ideas spreading instantly across the population. That's what made humans dominant, not
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Open Source Developers Power Modern Tech Stack Reality
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This diagram might be the most honest picture of the modern tech stack. Look closely. ↳ Unpaid open-source developers holding everything together
↳ AWS + Cloudflare doing most of the heavy lifting
↳ AI layered on top
↳ Microsoft… vibing aggressively somewhere in the middle -
5 Key Questions for In-Depth Analysis
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1/ THE "5 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS" PROMPT On Reddit, it was called a 'game changer.' It forces NotebookLM to extract a pedagogically sound structure instead of superficial summaries: "Analyze all inputs and generate 5 essential questions that, when answered,
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Democratization of software tools mirrors cinema disruption pattern
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Who is the consumer? A viewer right? What happened after cameras and democratisation of content is that the viewers abandoned cinema halls and started scrolling reels Similarly with software the new vibecoded stuff will feel like toys and non serious first
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Genuine ideas have never been more valuable to spread
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A more accurate extension: it’s never been more valuable to generate a genuinely new idea and mimetically spread it.
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Women Innovators Shaping the Future of Technology and AI
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Today we celebrate the women who inspire us – the innovators, builders, researchers, leaders, and dreamers shaping the future of technology and AI. Your ideas, curiosity, and leadership move the world forward. Happy International Women’s Day.
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Women Driving AI Innovation: International Women’s Day Celebration
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International Women’s Day is about more than celebration , it’s about recognizing the women who fought for equality and continue to shape the future. Today, women are driving innovation across every industry – including artificial intelligence. From researchers like @drfeifei , @timnitGebru , and @AnimaAnandkumar , to founders like @DanielaAmodei and @kaliouby , to voices educating millions like @alliekmiller and @ayeshakhanna1 . To celebrate them, we vibe-coded an interactive experience where you can explore these influential women in AI and choose the one who inspires you most. 👇 Cast your vote embeddable.live/embed/XM_SyM…
→ View original post on X — @animaanandkumar, 2026-03-08 17:57 UTC
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Public Opposition to AI Infrastructure Intensifies
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The public opposition to AI infrastructure is heating up | TechCrunch https://
buff.ly/5KBVhdi
#AI #MachineLearning #DeepLearning #LLMs #DataScience -
Difficulty Trusting News in the Modern Information Landscape
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It's very difficult to believe any news these days!