Award-Winning AI Artist, Storyteller, & Technologist
Taryn Southern: Biography at a Glance
- Taryn Southern is a pioneering storyteller known for her work at the intersection of emerging technology and human potential.
- Taryn released the world’s first AI pop album, I AM AI, which also hit the Top 100 US Radio Charts, created an award-winning Google VR series, and released the world’s first blockchain-based song token.
- Taryn is also the first content creator to create a video clone of herself using Generative AI.
- Taryn has garnered more than 750 million views on YouTube and has been featured in Vanity Fair, Fast Company, Wired, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and more.
- Taryn’s debut documentary on brain-computer interfaces, I Am Human, explores the unique opportunities of advanced brain technology and the larger implications we must consider.
- Taryn is Chief Storytelling Officer at the leading implantable neurotech company, which enables people to move and touch again through “chips” in the brain.
- As a biohacker turned stage 3 cancer survivor, Taryn is passionate about how AI can be applied to health and wellbeing.
Media
Official Site: TarynSouthern.comYouTube: Taryn SouthernBlackrock NeurotechBBC: Do you think AI has made you a better artist?Catch: The world's first AI-composed music album is here, and it sounds amazingThe Verge: I Am Human is a tech doc with a refreshing focus on peopleTech Crunch: Algo-Rhythms: The future of album collaborationTODAY: Music made by machines? Inside the latest revolution in musicForbes: Taryn Southern: How This YouTube Star Used AI For Her New AlbumNBC: AI-generated music growing exponentially, sparking debate
Videos
Biography
Taryn Southern is an award-winning artist and filmmaker known for her work at the intersection of emerging technology and human potential. Her work includes co-directing and producing an award-winning documentary on the future of the brain (Official Selection in the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival), composing the world’s first AI album (Top 100 US Radio Charts), producing an award-winning Google VR series (Winner of the AT&T Film Award), and releasing the first Ethereum-based song token. Taryn is also the first content creator to create a video clone of herself using Generative AI. A three-time Streamy Awards nominee, Taryn’s work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Billboard, Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Psychology Today, Harvard Business Review and more.
A pioneering YouTuber, Taryn uploaded her first viral video to YouTube in 2007. More than ten years and 750 million views later, Taryn had written, produced, or starred in more than 1500 pieces of digital content. She has created series for networks like Conde Naste, The Today Show, MTV, Snapchat, and Maker Studios, written for Business Insider and TechCrunch, served as a host for Discovery Channel’s #1 late night show, and signed a development deal with National Geographic Network.
Taryn has designed dozens of media initiatives to help science and technology companies spark consumer conversation, inspire investment interest, and shift public perception. From biotech to blockchain, she’s advised and/or invested in companies like Vessel, HTC Vive, Extend Fertility, Invitae Genetics, Forever Labs, Tubular, Snapchat, and Marriott, and sits on the board of the National Academy of Medicine Longevity Challenge. A passionate advocate of women in tech, she is currently developing several projects in the science and emerging technology spaces.
Topics
When Things Go South: Finding Resilience in the Face of Extreme Uncertainty
A pioneering storyteller, anthropoligst and artist, Taryn Southern’s work has long explored the intersection of science, technology and human potential. Then in 2019, Taryn’s optimistic mindset was suddenly shattered after a series of unexpected life events: a stage 3 cancer diagnosis, a breakup turned legal battle, the loss of her home, and a burglary that leaves her with little more than a suitcase of clothes.
Caught between the slippery wheels of life-threatening disease and soul-crushing depression, Taryn embarked on an east-meets-west search for healing that took her to the outer edges of science and spirituality: from breathwork practitioners in Northern California to electrifying healers in Bali. Between one stomach-churning medicine – chemotherapy – to another - ayahuasca, an unexpected vision for healing emerges: one that finds room for humor, pragmatism and magical thinking.
Now Chief Storytelling Officer at a leading neurotechnology company, Southern works at the bleeding edge of science. In this session, she shares the story of her unexpected pilgrimage, and how takeaways in ancient wisdom and modern neurotech can help you find resilience and possibility in the face of extreme uncertainty.
Takeaways:
- How you can use insights from neuroscience to reduce stress & enhance motivation and resilience
- Navigate uncertainty and fear with resilience
- Why inner work must translate to the outside world
- Why sharing your story is critical for wellbeing
- Transform pain into purpose
Collaborating with Robots: Using AI to Enhance Creativity
Pioneering content creator and award-winning AI artist, Taryn Southern, has used AI to compose the world’s first solo pop album, craft art using her brain scans, and make a video clone of herself. In this session, Taryn shares how anyone can use AI to expand their creative efforts - to create art, direct video, compose music, and improve storytelling.
The Future Is Exactly What You *Think*
Award-winning documentarian and emerging technology anthropologist Taryn Southern has spent the past decade working at the intersection of science and storytelling – and she’s here to tell you the future isn’t what you think…or maybe…it is?
Harnessing the power of machine learning and neural interfaces, concepts such as telepathy, telekinesis and decoding dreams are no longer the work of science fiction….but real world possibilities.
In this highly visual and powerful keynote, Southern offers an anthemic view of today’s most awe-inspiring advancements empowered by neurotechnology and machine learning – and how we can harness the insights from these technologies to unlock our own potential.
No Limits: Transform Your Life with Generative AI
Pioneering YouTuber Taryn Southern knows a thing or two about transformative tools. As part of a creator revolution, she racked up millions of views before “influencer” was even a word...or a job title. Since that time, she has explored new frontiers: from releasing the world’s first AI-composed pop album and directing an award-winning documentary on the future of the brain to mapping her genome and creating a digital clone of herself. Then, Taryn found herself facing a series of unexpected life events that challenged her optimism and resilience. In the aftermath, she began exploring how transformative tools like generative AI could be applied toward personal growth and potential.
In this session, Taryn shares the mind-blowing AI technologies that you can use to empower creativity, improve your health and relationships, free up your time, and transform your life.
Takeaways:
- 10 ways AI can tactically transform your life
- How to think outside the box with AI
- Changing norms: work smarter, not harder
Bold Storytelling with AI Technologies
Pioneering content creator and award-winning AI artist Taryn Southern has worked at the intersection of transformative technology and storytelling for more than a decade. From releasing the world’s first solo pop album composed with AI to directing an award-winning film on the future of human and artificial intelligence, Taryn shares how you can use AI to craft powerful, imaginative stories that inspire action and impact.
The World’s First Superhumans
Imagine being able to type, create digital art, and operate a robotic arm – with just your thoughts. Long considered the stuff of sci-fi lore, superhuman abilities are now a reality thanks to the real-world magic of implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which enable direct communication between the human brain and digital devices.
In this session, Chief Storytelling Officer of Blackrock Neurotech, Taryn Southern, shares the remarkable stories of the world’s first real-world superhumans - Nancy, James and Nathan. Afflicted with paralysis, these early research participants have defied human limitations, restored lost function, even gained new senses through their mind-bending research. While only a few dozen people globally have been implanted with a BCI, with a surge of investment in neurotechnology and AI, that number is about to multiply.
What is the future of vision, hearing, learning and memory? How will BCIs enable new forms of communication, embodiment and creativity? Should this technology be available to everyone, and perhaps, most importantly, is society ready?
