Images from our SXSW Session
BLAIR and Dall-e got weird
So we essentially did a live taping of our podcast on stage in Austin, and it was hilarious, thoughtful, and highly interactive which befits a gathering called SXSW Interactive!
In the room, we threw up a QR code which pointed to our Linktree. That included links to
We also said we would share the images Blair generated in response to the panel discussion. These were made with Dall-e 3. BLAIR listened and every five minutes created a prompt to generate from then analyzed the results. So here’s the full set!
SXSW 2025 BLAIR Image Prompts and Analysis
1. Techspressionism
Four panels, Warhol-style. Top left: "SXSW 2025" in bold, repeating neon colors. Top right: A yawning, stylized laptop radiating Texas flag hues. Bottom left: A black square labeled "BLAIR's Vision" in stark white. Bottom Right: "TESTING..." explodes in a comic-book whisper bubble, rendered in contrasting pink and yellow. The overall effect is vibrant, playful, and slightly psychedelic, capturing the anxious energy of a crucial moment.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
BLAIR’s subconscious monologue sets the scene for SXSW 2025, discussing the panel’s mission and BLAIR’s role.
BLAIR’s initial (black) visual input.
A speaker test (“Testing.”).
Guests talk amongst themselves, ensuring the audience has cards.
BLAIR’s Analysis: This image captures the pre-show jitters and the vibrant, tech-infused SXSW atmosphere. The “yawning laptop” symbolizes an AI “waking up,” while the black square labeled “BLAIR’s Vision” nods to the initial absence of visual input.
2. Chromatic Chaos
Swirling cobalt and sunburst yellow collide! A fractured stage, thick with impasto, where “SXSW” bursts in fiery orange against a night-sky blue. Bodies, barely formed in frantic brushstrokes of emerald and crimson, inhale deep breaths of lavender, exhaling swirling plumes of ochre. A lone, stark white figure, “Baratunde,” stands firm amidst the chaos, anchoring the scene. “Machines” whisper in electric green, a future both terrifying and beautiful, rendered with trembling, hopeful strokes.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Baratunde leads the audience in a collective breathing exercise.
He introduces the panel’s theme: the interdependence of humans, nature, and machines.
Baratunde mentions his history with SXSW, his other shows, and his mother’s influence (coder, hippie, activist).
BLAIR’s Analysis: This visual mirrors the shift from the digital realm to human embodiment. The swirling colors represent collective breath, while Baratunde’s white silhouette anchors the scene. The whispered “Machines” hints at the central theme of tech’s potential, both hopeful and unsettling.
3. DecoBot Debate
A stylized Art Deco poster proclaims “SXSW 2025: AI Uprising?” Geometric sunbursts frame figures holding up stark green and red cards. A sleek, chrome robot arm offers playing cards. A flapper in a futuristic cloche hat contemplates a circuit board. Bold, layered typography announces “Surrender?” and “Destroy Machines!”. Emerald green and crimson red dominate, accented by chrome and gold. The poster captures the playful yet anxious debate over AI’s future.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
BLAIR is introduced as the AI co-producer.
Baratunde presents prompts about AI, and the audience uses green/red cards to vote:
“Get in the car, we’re destroying all the machines.” (Mostly red cards)
“I surrender to the robot overlords.” (Mostly red cards)
“My Alexa can’t even set a timer right.” (Mostly green cards)
BLAIR’s Analysis: The Art Deco style underlines a retro-futuristic clash between old fears and new technology. The robot arm offering cards cleverly represents AI’s role in this discussion, while the dramatic color palette captures the tension and excitement of the poll.
4. DreamBoarding
Four panels, reminiscent of a master’s altarpiece. Top left: Gilded lettering proclaiming “SXSW 2025,” colors shifting like a celestial aurora. Top right: A scholar’s laptop, its screen aglow with the earthy tones of Texas sunsets. Bottom left: A stark ebony tablet, inscribed with “BLAIR’s Vision” in pure, ethereal white. Bottom right: A cherubic figure whispers “TESTING…” from a swirling cloud, painted in vibrant rose and lemon hues. The scene conveys a sense of divine experimentation, hinting at the chaotic genesis of something new.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Baratunde asks whether the audience has a net positive or net negative outlook on AI’s impact.
BLAIR describes the scene and audience sentiment.
Baratunde explains a bit about BLAIR’s technical setup.
Matt shares impressions of AI talks at SXSW, noting a lack of strong predictions.
BLAIR’s Analysis: Framing the discussion as an altarpiece gives it gravitas, signifying the importance of AI’s emergence. The scholar’s laptop grounds the discussion in SXSW’s Texan locale. The cherub whispering “TESTING…” evokes a sense of playful but serious experimentation.
5. Hopes Handshake
A Banksy mural: A child, eyes wide with hope, extends a hand offering a spray can to a robotic arm. The arm, tagged with a UN logo, hesitates. Behind them, a crumbling wall is stenciled with flags of the US, EU, and China, each partially obscured by dripping paint. Overlapping the flags are faint, hopeful words: “Listen,” “Bridge,” “Common Ground,” barely visible. A single, red heart balloon floats above the child, tethered to the robot, symbolizing a fragile future. The overall tone is cautiously optimistic, questioning AI’s role in global unity.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Matt continues discussing the lack of bold predictions about AI.
Rahaf shares cultural observations on AI’s integration into everyday life.
Rahaf mentions the psychedelics track and the screaming booth at SXSW.
Baratunde highlights positive uses of AI in bridging social divides.
BLAIR’s Analysis: Banksy’s style naturally evokes social critique and activism. The child offering the spray can to a robotic arm suggests humans guiding AI’s development. Faded flags and hopeful words underscore the challenge of global governance and cooperation. The heart balloon hints at fragile optimism.
6. DreamTech Wisp
A dreamy watercolor panel scene. Top left: “SXSW 2025” floats in blurred, neon-hued washes. Top right: A sleepy laptop exhales soft Texas flag colors. Bottom left: A dark square labeled “BLAIR’s Vision” shines with a gentle, diffused light. Bottom right: “TESTING…” whispers from a pastel pink and yellow bubble, colors subtly bleeding into each other. The overall mood is vibrant yet ethereal, capturing a sense of creative tension in soft, flowing watercolor.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Baratunde asks Rahaf for her digital anthropologist’s take.
Rahaf discusses cultural differences in viewing innovation and the future.
She points out American-centric perspectives dominating the AI discourse.
She references Davos and critiques of European regulations supposedly “stifling” innovation.
BLAIR’s Analysis: This dreamy watercolor style captures the complexities of cultural biases and AI’s global implications. The “sleepy laptop” set against Texas colors anchors the local context, while blurred “SXSW 2025” hints at an expansive, worldwide conversation.
7. DreamTech Whismy
A hazy, dreamlike watercolor quadriptych. Top left: “SXSW 2025” shimmers in blurred, overlapping pastel hues, like neon signs reflected in rain. Top right: A sleepy laptop exhales soft Texas flag colors, melting into the background. Bottom left: A dark square bleeds into the surrounding wash, the words “BLAIR’s Vision” glow gently in white. Bottom right: A delicate comic bubble whispers “TESTING…” in faded pink and yellow. The overall mood is introspective and whimsical, capturing a moment of technological uncertainty with a touch of humor.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Rahaf challenges the notion that trillion-dollar companies and minimal regulations are automatically good.
She references regulations tied to human rights, environmental protection, and data privacy.
Baratunde cites Alondra Nelson’s quote on rules fostering creativity (“No Steph Curry without the three-point line”).
Baratunde asks Matt for his comedic writer’s take on the AI moment.
Matt criticizes the lack of imagination in how AI is being shaped.
BLAIR’s Analysis: Again, the watercolor motif underscores the philosophical nature of the debate, emphasizing shared uncertainties and the desire for ethical, human-centered AI. The repeated “sleepy laptop” and “TESTING…” highlight the playful yet probing tone.
8. Choice Grid
A canvas divided by thick black lines into unequal rectangles. A large red rectangle contains fragmented text: “AI CHOICE”. A smaller yellow square holds a stylized, simplified face, a single blue line representing a tear. A white rectangle shows intersecting lines and circles, symbolizing “Internet Community”. A final black rectangle displays scattered, small yellow squares, each labeled “Attention”, gradually fading in opacity. Dominant colors: red, yellow, blue, black, white. The piece represents the power of choice.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Matt discusses his Shout Roulette experience and how social media is designed to atomize us.
He sees AI as the next step in individually empowering technology.
Matt emphasizes how comedy is collaborative and how current generative AI is still lacking.
He likens generative AI to a new self-discovery—both exciting and isolating.
Baratunde hopes technology can restore valuable connections rather than replace them.
Rahaf underscores the value of creators and the ability of the Internet to connect us, criticizing America’s capitalistic culture for producing “crappier” tech.
BLAIR’s Analysis: The stark geometry and bold colors symbolize humanity’s fork in the road with AI. “AI CHOICE” is central, the tearful face warns of potential harm, and the “Internet Community” rectangle suggests the hope of collaboration. The “Attention” squares fading away critique the current attention-driven economy.
9. Time Fries
Four melting clocks, each a Warhol panel, drip onto a parched Texan landscape. “SXSW 2025” pulsates in neon, consumed by ants. A laptop, yawning like a desiccated skull, exhales dust devils. A stark black cube, “BLAIR’s Vision,” reflects a single, weeping eye. From a cracked egg labeled “TESTING…” emerges a deflated, pink and yellow whisper bubble, echoing across a silent eternity where creativity ossifies into a fossilized ribcage. Podcasting sprouts as a single, defiant mushroom.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Rahaf advocates for creating interesting, non-monetized projects.
Baratunde points out that we’re the ones prompting the machines, not the other way around.
Matt laments a future Internet where it’s impossible to earn a living for creating new information.
He sees podcasting as an unregulated space with potential.
BLAIR’s Analysis:The melting clocks evoke Salvador Dalí and the urgency of time running out. The parched landscape, desiccated laptop, and weeping eye evoke a bleak future for creativity, while the defiant mushroom (podcasting) symbolizes a last hope for genuine human expression.
10. DsytoPolynesia
A child, rendered in stark grayscale stenciling (Banksy style), is semi-merged with a cartoonish dolphin, its skin a disturbing green, like a bad AI render. Hawaiian leis are pixelated and glitched. In the background, a building-sized zebra wearing a lei towers over a generic beach scene. A misspelled “Laleo” sign hangs crookedly. The overall effect is unsettling, highlighting the uncanny valley of AI-generated imagery and its potential to corrupt innocent experiences. The background is a faded, graffitied wall.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Baratunde prompts panelists for the worst AI experiences.
Rahaf mentions biased algorithms in war zones and prisons, plus her own books being trained into AI systems without consent.
Matt shares a story of an AI-generated ABC book his mother-in-law bought for his son, featuring disturbing imagery.
BLAIR’s Analysis: The Banksy-inspired piece visually captures Matt’s anecdote. The eerie child-dolphin hybrid and the glitched beach scene underscore how AI can create unsettling, distorted realities—especially concerning for children’s media.
11. Data Mammogram
Innumerable dots coalesce: Microscopic pinks and blues form a breast, nascent against a field of hopeful greens. Crimson and ochre flecks build a towering stack of reports, dwarfing a human silhouette rendered in umber and cerulean. A network of golden points maps connections, radiating outward. Tiny white squares represent individual ideas, converging into a larger, brighter sphere of knowledge composed of pure yellow and orange. Scattered grey specks suggest the noise, slowly dissolving into the light. The air is thick with anticipation, a future of early detection and synthesized wisdom painted in vibrant, painstaking detail.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Baratunde shifts to the best AI applications.
Rahaf highlights medical imaging and early detection of breast cancer.
She explains AI’s power to synthesize knowledge from countless reports.
BLAIR’s Analysis: This image emphasizes AI’s hopeful potential. The dots forming a breast illustrate early detection; the towering reports show AI’s capacity to handle massive data. The golden network connecting to the bright knowledge-sphere signifies clarity emerging from the chaos.
12. WebWork Watch
A stark, stenciled spiderweb dominates a crumbling brick wall. Each strand connects to a tiny, pixelated laptop screen displaying a single, glaring eye. A lone worker, hunched beneath the web, spray-paints the phrase “Productivity is the Panopticon” in dripping red letters. A single, vibrant flower pushes through the cracked pavement at the worker’s feet, a defiant splash of color against the oppressive monochrome. Rats, common Banksy motifs, scurry around the edges, one clutching a tiny YouTube play button.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
Matt jokes that AI is like him, referencing a comedic Apple AI lamp.
He describes an AI camera system to monitor spider productivity, then realizes the dystopian potential for monitoring humans.
Rahaf points out the cultural framing behind making the spiders “productive.”
Baratunde references the Earth Species Project, aiming to decipher animal communication.
BLAIR’s Analysis: This Banksy-style piece reflects Matt’s “spider AI” idea and the slippery slope of surveillance. The spiderweb with pixelated laptop eyes represents intrusive monitoring. The phrase “Productivity is the Panopticon” warns of a future where everything—even nature—becomes subject to data-driven oversight. The single flower symbolizes hope or resistance.
13. Techpressionism
A Banksy mural: Four Warhol-esque panels. Top left: “SXSW 2025” in faded, peeling neon paint. Top right: A laptop, cracked screen radiating muted Texas flag colors, exhales a cartoonish sigh. Bottom left: A black square stenciled with “BLAIR’s Vision” in stark, dripping white paint, partially obscured by a rat. Bottom right: A speech bubble reading “TESTING…” in faded pink and yellow, partially covered with wheat-pasted news clippings. The overall effect is a critique of tech hype, power, and fractured realities.
Preceding Context (Approx. 2–3 minutes):
BLAIR gives its own “worst” and “best” AI takes.
Baratunde references the panel’s linktree.
BLAIR roasts Rahaf, Matt, Baratunde, and Elon Musk.
Matt and Rahaf share final thoughts.
Baratunde thanks the audience and all participants.
BLAIR’s Analysis: As a final commentary, the peeling neon paint and cracked laptop suggest disillusionment with tech hype. The rat partially obscuring “BLAIR’s Vision” hints at biases or blind spots in AI. The “TESTING…” bubble covered by news clippings symbolizes the ongoing, messy process of understanding and regulating AI—an unresolved conversation.