Web Summit Rio has kicked off!
Web Summit Rio 2023 is underway, and as Rio de Janeiro welcomes the highly anticipated Web Summit Rio 2023, the fusion of technology and fashion has never been more apparent. With AI-powered design, cutting-edge marketing strategies, and influential tastemakers taking center stage, the event promises to keep us updated on the latest trends and technology. Dive into our exclusive coverage as we explore how emerging tech trends are set to revolutionize the way we create, consume, and connect with fashion on Pynck. The main content began on May 2nd, here are our key highlights from Day 1.
The first event that grabbed our interest was a Keynote which took place on the Center Stage – “Think of a color that doesn’t exist” by Fernando Machado, CMO of NotCo. AI appears to be the current trend, and we are becoming increasingly aware of the positives and negatives of it. It is clear that Fernando focuses on the positives and believes an AI revolution is hurtling towards us which will affect many areas: health, business, and sustainability. The NotCo company uses AI along with chefs and food experts to make creative plant based food products which closely mimic the animal based counterparts with some very impressive results.
The next event which caught our eye, keeping on the topic of AI, was the Keynote by Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google. Her talk was titled “Whose job does AI automate?”. The first key point made, was that engineers are the ones who automate jobs. She then indicates that AI is coming for software developer jobs and they should prepare for change! The “spiciest” take from her talk was that whats currently going on isn’t an AI revolution, but, a design revolution. AI has been in the background of things we’ve been using for years e.g. Google, Netflix. Now, the user directly tinkers with AI directly which opens up huge opportunities for design, creativity, and problem solving.
In contrast to this, we have Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, and Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigator Yahoo News. They had a Fireside chat on Center Stage titled “Why we need to put the brakes on AI development”. They pointed out that AI technology is massively powerful in the hands of centralized powers especially in the US and China – it will be hard to stop bad actors using it for bad things. They point out that there are ways we can push back from these technologies taking over – primarily through local political action.
