Necessary Always Active
Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Published on
June 3, 2025
5 min read
AI Dominates Discussions at the Inaugural South by Southwest (SXSW) London Event
South by Southwest London kicked off on June 2. According to CNBC, the SXSW, which is better known in the US, is being held in the UK for the first time. The weeklong event brings together big names in the tech, music, art, and film worlds and is held in Austin, Texas annually. SXSW is taking place in multiple locations across Shoreditch. This is a creative neighborhood that is located near London’s major tech hub, Old Street.
A Tech Hub Pitch
London Mayor Sadiq Khan pitched to make the city a hub for trade, talent, tech and innovation in his opening speech. Khan also took a swipe at the trade policies adopted by US President Donald Trump even as he positioned London as a city that is open for business.
“We believe we can do business in a way that achieves commercial gains at the same time as advancing the common good. So at the time when there’s so much uncertainty and political turmoil across the pond, defined by an inward looking mentality, I’m going to reach out to international investors, businesses and creators to say that London offers you the opposite,” Khan said.
Big names in the tech and music industries are making appearances at the SXSW event. On the tech front, AI firm Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis spoke at the event. Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner and music artist Idris Elba also attended the event.
Khan termed the conversations that will be taking place in the weeklong event as consequential and expressed his desire for London to become a global center for innovation and AI investment.
AI at SXSW London
Artificial intelligence is among the big themes of discussion at the SXSW event. Mayor Khan played to the audiences with a ChatGPT anecdote in his opening speech.
“Given the major theme of this festival is tech and AI, this morning, I did consult ChatGPT about the significance of SXSW coming to our city. They said, and I quote, ‘This is a moment of creative synergy, London’s spirit meets Austin’s swagger. It’s like Big Ben started wearing cowboy boots and launched a podcast’,” he said.
UK driverless vehicle startup Wayve, joined Google DeepMind and Hugging Face in AI discussions SXSW 2025. Hassabis discussed artificial general intelligence at the event, saying its impact on society will be greater than the internet and the industrial revolution. He also underscored the need to develop the technology in a responsible manner.
According to the Google DeepMind founder, AI tools will bring new, valuable jobs
over the next decade. They will “supercharge technically savvy people who are at the forefront of using these technologies, but combining it with creativity and other skills. I think they’re going to be able to achieve superhuman things,” Hassabis said.
Additionally, Hassabis said that children will grow up in AI environments just as the previous generation did with the internet. While recommending STEM subjects, he said that people need to experience AI tools.
“I’d also be experimenting with all the latest AI systems and tools and seeing what’s the best way of utilising them and making use of them in useful and novel ways, so I would be embracing that and hacking around with those tools,” he said.
Open Source AI Models
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf discussed the future of robotics and the progress made in open-source AI models at the Shoreditch Electric. Currently, open source AI is a big deal because of the strong performance that China’s DeepSeek model demonstrated when it launched earlier this year.
But SXSW London was not without controversy. On June 2, many artists boycotted the event after participation of UK former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair was not announced to the public.
A leaked programme showed that Cameron was to appear in the Health Revolution panel while Blair was scheduled to discuss Government and AI. Blair said that the UK should embrace AI in public service or risk falling behind in what he termed as the greatest revolution since the industrial revolution.
