🐋So, where is tech going?
The TLDR on the future of AI Art, Climate Tech, and more 👀 Plus, just opened roles as PM @Spotify, Strategy Analyst @asana, and a handful of open internships @Atlassian!
Hi there, Tech Pod 💦
As you may have noticed, earlier this week we sent out some info about NY Tech Week and the events hosted by Free Agency. In this week’s Tech Pod, we thought we’d go over the thoughts posed, the points made, and their application to our professional lives.
FEAR//TECH 👻
Are you scared of the future of tech? There are a lot of people who are. We sat down with some creative thought leaders to talk about the very real, often scary, future tense of innovation, and what could get a little uncomfortable about it.
AI art is the future, but what does that mean for creatives?
Whoever owns the printing press has the power, and that power can undermine creators. It’s always been this way. Kinsey Grant, host of Thinking is Cool and former business editor at Morning Brew, brought up the point that as cool as these platforms are, those who make the algorithms control the conversation. They’re creating the discussions, so the solution centers around investing in diverse people to skew that needle and build diversity into products, thus impacting the diversity of culture, diversity of thought, and the ability to empower creatives.
Tech is both good and bad, how do we ensure it’s always leaning toward the right side of the conversation?
Transparency and regulation are at the center of these questions, said Sinan Aral, MIT prof and partner at Manifest Capital. We can’t just hope that tech won’t be weaponized, someone has to be accountable for ensuring it’s not.
Dr. Frida Polli, the founder of pymetrics, agreed, adding that people have to start taking the nuance and complexity of existence into mind. We often want blanket statements that fit over an entire spectrum of thoughts (i.e. “Tik Tok is ruining music”) but blanket statements reduce dialogue and encourage polarization. We have to encourage the in-between conversation and thought (i.e. Tik Tok has the potential to simplify music composition with virality, but it can also open up larger platforms for creators, diversifying our exposure).
What’s the most optimistic thing that tech can offer?
Kinsey: Creatives will always be creative, and she’s optimistic that it flows naturally. They’ll continue to have that advantage to innovate and use tech as a means to be more creative.
Frida: Climate tech. Period.
Sahil: Health-related tech and the application of AI to make people healthier.
Overall, we learned that these conversations about the future prepare us for what it holds – we can’t predict it, but at least we can put it into perspective, and make it a little less intimidating 😉
A little bit of news, as a treat 🗞
Coinbase x Google collab – you’ll be able to pay for cloud services with crypto soon. 💰
Tik Tok x Shopify collab – the nostalgia of live shopping is too hard to ignore, and Tik Tok is leaning in. 🛍
The part with the jobs and internships 😏
Full-Time 👩🎓
Strategy and Analytics Analyst, asana
Sales Development Representative, attentive
Internships 🧑💻
Post-Grad Internships 🧳
🐋
Written by Paige Connelly