Dear Reader,
It's a sunny day in Louisville today as I finish the last few speaking appearances of the first half of 2026 before an upcoming summer break, I'm thinking about art, tech, music, whether everyone really deserves a second chance and watching way too much World Cup soccer.
All that and the usual bonus stories are on the menu for you in this week's non-obvious newsletter. Enjoy and stay curious!
Rohit
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Imagining the Shared AI Future For Technology and Art
Yesterday I spent the day among a community of thinkers and creators imagining the reality of a topic that many people are talking about - the intersection of humanity and technology. Artists, musicians, poets and filmmakers all gathered in New York at the Shared AI Futures Forum hosted by Aspen Digital and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The event brought together some visionary creators including King Willonius, Baratunde Thurston, Kelly Boesch, Manon Dave, Sasha Stiles, Dr. Catie Cuan and Reggie Watts. Throughout the day, we co-created a song, learned about the emerging science of choreorobotics, experienced a poetry reading that quickly morphed into a poetry writing where art was created in real time. During the breaks the conversations ranged from AI ethics policy to the rise of a Creators Coalition with bold plans to help AI broaden human creativity instead of undermining it.
The biggest theme that emerged from the event for me was the joy and hope that comes from sharing a room with people who are actively DOING deeply human things with technology. Many events feature professional speakers or researchers who are skilled at describing what's happening from the outside. In the room at Times Center in NY yesterday, the invited participants were the ones actually creating those futures and applying those tools.
The energy and optimism from those experiments infused every conversation and their passions became infectious. Unlike many future-focused events, it was impossible to walk out of this one feeling anything but positive about the potential for how smart capable artists will be able to intersect creativity with humanity to create new art forms without destroying those of the past.
These are the voices we need to share, celebrate and elevate because they are the counterbalance to the megalomania and psychopathy of the world's biggest tech founders. The day was also a perfect reminder that to truly understand the impact of all this technology, there is no substitute for being in a room with people who can help you experience the wonders of what is possible with your own eyes.
Is Gen Z the First Generation To Have No Signature Sound?
The 80s had house and techno and Michael Jackson. The 90s had rave, grunge and pop. The 2000s brought minimal and dubstep and the 2010s had hyper pop and EDM. The biggest movement of the 2020s seems to be resurgence of songs (and sounds) from past decades. Retro nostalgia is hot and new artists come up emulating the sounds of generations before they were even born. Add to this the coming impact of AI collaboration on the future of music and the next wave of music innovation gets even more complex.
One factor may be the growing fragmentation of the industry that makes it harder for any single sound or artist to break through to stand out. Add the fact that aging stars continue to perform and tour for decades after their "prime" - and reliably still fill stadiums. So for any lover of new music, what can we do to fix this? As my friend and fellow futurist Nikolas Badminton shares, it starts with music findability. Given how much data our preferred streaming music generates about our listening habits, we all have the ability to use that data to explore and discover new music. We just need to choose to ask for that instead of listening to the same music over and over.
For a deeper dive into this topic and even more suggestions for how we might contribute to discovering that signature sound for this decade, you can read the longer report from Resident Advisor magazine writer Gabriel Szatan who explores the issue further.
3 Reasons Commencement Speakers Should Be Comedians
Over the past few weeks, I've attended two graduations in person and watched more than a dozen clips from others that have been circulating online. The ones that go viral seem to share one quality: they are usually delivered by comedians. Here's the thing about this modern commencement moment that we all need to realize: students are worried. They have angst about their future prospects and the world they are graduating into. They also want to celebrate this day of achievement and aren't really in a moment when they can process deep complex advice. Most comedians don't really deliver that anyway.
Instead, they avoid the poison pills that have tanked many other graduation speaker's performances this season. Comedians generally don't rave about the upside of AI. They rarely resort to platitudes about following your passion. Most of all, they don't take themselves too seriously. Right now (and maybe for the foreseeable future) that's a winning combination. So here's my brief pitch for why leaning into the funny is ideal for commencement speeches.
1. Laughter breaks the tension of an otherwise serious and solemn event, which gives everyone permission to lean into the celebration.
2. Comedians know how to keep it short - so at an event where success and brevity often go hand in hand, they are an ideal choice.
3. Funny commencement speeches are easier to share, remember and go viral - which has great impact AND is good for marketing too.
So consider this an open letter/plea to graduation ceremony planners. Next year, let's see more comedians and less of everyone else. Everyone will be happier, the students might actually remember something and at the very least it won't be boring.
What do you think - would this work?
