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Bluesky is thinking about how to block AI scrapers
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said during her SXSW panel that the social network has been working on a framework for user consent over how they want their data to be used for generative AI. The proposal involves a system similar to robots.txt but would instead ask companies to respect users’ settings on data reuse.
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Two open web initiatives may be teaming up
Entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Project Liberty is developing open internet infrastructure, announced at SXSW that his organization has been in discussions with internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee about an integration with Solid, his open source project aimed at giving people control over their own data.
“We’re debating, or talking, right now about how to incorporate that — him and Solid, his Solid Pods — into the project,” McCourt teased.
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Bluesky CEO Jay Graber takes a swipe at Mark Zuckerberg
Jay Graber’s got jokes. As the Bluesky CEO took the stage for her SXSW keynote on Monday, she wore a black T-shirt with black lettering across the chest, which declared, “Mundus sine caesaribus.” Or, “A world without Caesars.”
Her shirt is nearly identical to one that Mark Zuckerberg wore (and designed) at Meta Connect last year. But Zuckerberg’s shirt had a bit more of a dictatorial vibe: “Aut Zuck aut nihil.” It means “Either Zuck or nothing,” playing on the Latin phrase “Aut Caesar aut nihil,” comparing himself to Julius Caesar.
This isn’t just an empty jab; Bluesky’s entire architecture is built around never giving too much power to one person, whereas Zuckerberg owns so much of Meta that he couldn’t be ousted, even if his board wanted him to be.
Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar.
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First Waymo robotaxi spotted
You might have heard — or read here at TechCrunch — about the “Waymo on Uber” robotaxi service that launched in Austin last week. I didn’t expect to see many of these robotaxis this week because of the road closures around the Austin Convention Center and side blocks. But nope! These suckers are out and about. I spotted one driving around within a few minutes of downtown. I’ll be trying to hail one this week to compare it to how the rides stack up with the ones I’ve taken in Phoenix and San Francisco.
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First SXSW task complete: Founders and Franklin Barbecue
I was in Austin for all of five hours and managed to have some famous Franklin Barbecue and meet up with some founders at an event hosted by Justworks. I guess I can go home now.
Justworks, founded in 2012, is a company that provides HR and payroll management software and services to thousands of small businesses. If anyone knows what might be on the minds of entrepreneurs and founders, it’s CEO Michael Seckler, who I caught up with briefly during the event. I wanted his take on startup founder sentiment here in Austin — and elsewhere.
While he noted there does appear to be some uncertainty — especially around whether to jump into an IPO — the founders he’s encountered have a steely resolve around them. They’ve survived a lot in the past couple of years and they’re like, “OK, we’ve got this,” Seckler told TechCrunch during the event. “Confidence” was a word he used more than twice to describe the general vibe from founders.
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Death Stranding 2’s new trailer drops at SXSW 2025
It’s hard to predict just what will come out of any event led by Hideo Kojima, game designer and creator of the Metal Gear franchise. His SXSW 2025 panel was ostensibly about his upcoming game Death Stranding 2, turning into what was effectively a release date reveal for the title, which will debut on June 26. But for anyone versed in Kojima’s prior work, his attachment to Hollywood celebrity, and prior critiques of the original Death Stranding’s traversal-focused gameplay, there is much, much more to unpack from the 10-minute trailer.
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Colossal CEO Ben Lamm calls for ‘Manhattan Project’ for de-extinction
Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, declared onstage that humanity has a “moral obligation and an ethical obligation to pursue technologies [that] undo some of the things that we [as a species] have done.”
Lamm’s startup aims to use gene-editing techniques to bring back extinct species, including the woolly mammoth (sadly, he said dinosaurs remain impossible). But he also said the broader goal of resurrecting lost species may require a “Manhattan Project-scale project” to “back up” endangered species in “bio vaults.”
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Disney highlights links between movies, parks, and tech
Disney’s SXSW “The Future of World-Building” session lived up to its promise of special guests, with appearances from “The Mandalorian” creator Jon Favreau, Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, Marvel Entertainment president Kevin Feige, and “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr.
They appeared alongside the Imagineers who create the rides at Disney theme parks, using their stage time to highlight upcoming attractions drawn from Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel movies and shows. (Sometimes, the inspiration can go in the other direction, with droids built for the parks also appearing in the upcoming film “The Mandalorian & Grogu.”)
Downey compared the Imagineers to his superhero character Tony Stark/Iron Man (a role he’ll be reprising in both “Avengers: Infinity Defense” and “Stark Flight Lab”), praising their “drive to put something good into the world” and make it “at a minimum, more fun.”
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The People’s Bid for TikTok proposes letting users benefit from targeted ads
The People’s Bid for TikTok, a consortium organized by Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt, wants to let users take control of their personal data.
At SXSW, McCourt and investor Kevin O’Leary elaborated on their vision to buy TikTok, proposing an interesting idea where TikTok users would be compensated for their role in refining the algorithm based on their preferences. O’Leary explained that if users encounter a personalized ad and buy the product, they should receive a cut from the ad sale.
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AI is a frenemy
AI is already popping off on the first day of the tech, music, and film event. Take for instance this talk by Kasley Killam, author of the social health-focused book “The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier.”
She warns that while there may be benefits to using AI to practice social interactions, there is a clear downside for people who use the technology as a replacement to personal relationships.
You can check out the full article here on her interview, but if you’re in a rush, here’s the TL;DR: Don’t get too cozy with your AI companion.
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‘Agentic AI is like putting your brain in a jar’
At least that’s what Signal president Meredith Whittaker thinks about this new paradigm of computing, where AI performs tasks on users’ behalf. While putting our brains in jars might be tempting on those particularly chaotic days, it does make us vulnerable to privacy and security threats, she cautioned onstage at SXSW.
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What the TechCrunch staff is seeing, hearing, and trying out in Austin
SXSW 2025, the annual consumer tech-meets-music-film-culture-and-comedy conference held in Austin, is here — and this is where you can find all of our live updates. SXSW 2025 kicked off Friday and runs through March 13.
We’ll have folks on the ground through Friday to meet with founders and VCs, catch a show or two, and attend the numerous keynotes and sessions in the tech portion of the show, including with Bluesky, Rivian, Qualcomm, Signal, NASA, Amazon, Disney, Walmart, and Wing — to name a few. And yes, we’ll also be trying out those Waymo robotaxis.
Follow our live updates.
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SXSW 2025 live coverage: Health tips from Bryan Johnson, concerns about Elon Musk, and what it’s like to actually ride a Waymo Uber on the conference’s final day
TechCrunch will be on the ground at SXSW 2025 — the annual tech, music, comedy, and film conference that kicked off Friday in Austin — in search of the zeitgeist of this AI-centric era.
The tech portion of the annual event kicked off Friday and will run through March 13.
The conference begins with several tracks that fall squarely in TechCrunch’s area of interest, including the creator economy, culture, startups, health and medtech, and energy.
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October 27-29, 2025
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