At SXSW, Brazilian women are the best of the best – 03/22/2024 – Tech

SXSW is the most powerful and fun innovation conference on Earth. The first (and most obvious reason) is the fact that it takes place in the United States, home to four out of five of the biggest technology companies on the planet, meaning that the speakers are really the people who most understand the subject on the market. After all, they are the ones creating the trends.

But beyond the speakers, the entire organization is carefully designed to offer a very meaningful experience for the thousands of people who participate in the event. To do this, they bring together artists, intellectuals and experts in the most diverse and interesting areas of today, mixing entertainment with learning, in which participants end up making great friends.

What happens is literally the occupation of the city of Austin (Texas), where information “trails” are offered to the public who come from all over the world.

I saw a huge number of lectures, music shows, stand up comedies, cinema films, awards shows and augmented reality experiences, all of high quality. However, I will choose the two most impactful performances I witnessed: two women. Brazilians, they managed to have more impact than everyone else, in my opinion.

Bia Ferreira and Yasodara Córdova, Yaso.

Bia Ferreira sings like someone who is going to change the world, break the membrane that protects individuals in their bubbles. Her Instagram is @igrejalesbiteriana and her lyrics remind us that our heritage comes from many black people who ended up at the bottom of the sea, who had no chance of swimming or saving themselves because they were tied up beforehand.

A shock of talent and lucidity, packed with extraordinary melodies and rhythms.

Yaso, a technology wizard, showed that data is like a highly valued raw material exploited by billion-dollar markets, and that we still don’t know and don’t even make an effort to know where they are going.

She talks about the dangers of advances in generative AI and about interfaces that represent the chance for a future with more privacy and control over our data.

The Brazilian’s talk had such a positive impact that the event organizers opened a new time so she could repeat the dose.

The discussion about privacy and data ownership is truly an indispensable subject. Yaso chilled the audience when he talked about “privacy washing” and addressed surveillance capitalism, which monitors everyone all the time to offer products.

It showed that the simple act of walking with your cell phone in your pocket means that anyone’s data can be used to offer them some profitable service. And even if the person does not choose to purchase, their data will be auctioned. He also talked about how the advertising ecosystem works.

Surveillance occurs in a diluted form on a daily basis and is justified by the growing fear of crime. It is a giant industry that sells to governments and offers overt policing in the name of protecting the population that accepts it without realizing it or questioning it.

Thus, the cameras film from a distance to “identify the faces of people who theoretically have an arrest warrant issued.” However, failures often occur and innocent people end up behind bars. Generally black people and so we return to the genius of Bia’s music.

Brazilian women making the world realize what is not being said. That algorithms only reproduce the bias with which they were programmed. That the great ethical issue to be addressed is still in its initial phase. But let’s not fool ourselves, because the bill will arrive!