Call to Action 2: Embrace the Bot
SXSW 2019 Special
A big SXSW topic yet again this year was how to redefine the power relationship between tech and humanity.
Finding ways to take the reins and reshape technology, rather than tech shaping us. Consumers are no longer swayed by big words and ideologies — they want to see immediate output and relevance. If a brand promises human-centric tools — then the brand needs to stop talking, and rather put new solutions on the table, proving that digital can actually be used to better serve us. Prepping your brand for today needs to be about humanity, not humane technology.
We have to stop using technology to optimise human beings for the market, and start optimising technology for the human future. (Douglas Rushkoff)
If you only read this:
Although the battle between people and technology is hardly new, it continues to gain relevance. Our digital lives seem to threaten those parts of us that make us most human — our ambiguous, unpredictable, paradoxical selves. At SXSW 2018, all eyes were on finding ways to make technology feel more humane, and to embed digital into our human nature. But at SXSW 2019, presenters seemed to get more precise, drilling into the exhausted term ‘human’, defining what exactly it is we as consumers and users are desiring. It turns out that EMPATHY is this year’s secret sauce. When the last thing we stroke before going to bed is our phone, we intrinsically know that something needs to shift! Individuals want to be seen, heard and understood — they want to be treated as human beings, like never before.
Awesome Humans
Designer and technologist John Maeda presented his yearly ‘Design in Tech’ report at SXSW. A chapter in this extensive report is entitled Awesome Humans, where Maeda picks 14 cases that — in his eyes — have succeeded in befriending technology to better serve us.
An example is the playful Project Alias, an intermediary between your digital home assistant and your phone. By attaching the Alias muzzle to your phone, you can communicate and manipulate your home assistant, to prevent the likes of Google ‘listening’ to you.
The exciting future that “smart” technologies can give us often comes with conditions that diminish our privacy. With Alias we want to challenge this condition and ask what kind of “smart” we actually want in the future.” (- Bjørn Karmann, Project Alias)
Sony also made a case for how technology can enhance our creativity with its WOW studio, winning the Arrow for ‘Best Use of Technology’ for the second year running.
But is it their creativity that makes them great,
or the technology they use to get there?” | #SonyatSXSW
Both ‘Flow Machines’, an AI assisted music composing system, and ‘Cave without a Light,’ an experiential exhibition that allowed visitors to collectively play music using sound and haptic technology, made it possible for anyone to tap into their inner creative spirit and make some music.
It’s hard to say whether all this is enough to assuage fears of an oncoming robot apocalypse. That’s a lot of anxiety to tamp down. But at least in this version of the future, maybe all the robots want to do is jam. (-Erin Carson, CNET)
Mercedes-Benz’s new electric mobility brand EQ (derived from the brand values of emotion and intelligence), provided an ‘electrifying experience’ in Austin at their 3-day EQ home.
A programme of talks and events were held around the themes ‘Tech Driven’ and ‘Great Transformations,’ and Mercedes-Benz presented their Stress Inversion Transformer. Visitors were invited to step into a machine, scream, stomp, and let out their emotions. The transformer would then take the sound and kinetic energy and turn it into electricity. This unorthodox initiative by Mercedes-Benz was certainly one that made people react — and potentially feel more human (at least for a minute or two).
Enterprise Empathy
Tech can make us question what is real and who to trust, and businesses are finding revenue from giving people a sense of reassurance.
Empathy is helping drive business, a trend defined as ‘Enterprise Empathy’, by marketing expert and trend curator Rohit Bhargava. Starbucks has opened a signing store for the hearing impaired. Herbal Essences has redesigned their hair care packaging for the visually impaired. UK grocery chain Tesco has introduced a relaxed lane check-out, for people who have dementia and need more time. Also in the UK, Morrisons has earlier, quiet opening hours for those who can’t, or don’t want to, deal with crowds and noise.
Following the ‘made with empathy’ tendencies, Bhargava introduced what he defines as Robot Renaissance. Japan has an all-robot staffed hotel, and Hanson Robots are trying to embed consciousness into their humanoid robot — giving people have plenty of reasons to FEAR the Bot. But Bhargava argues that robots can be hugely helpful in certain contexts — such as healthcare and performing dangerous tasks — so we should embrace our robotic friends with more curiosity than concern, and rather focus on teaching them empathy.
