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Taryn Southern
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Biography Highlights
- Pioneering storyteller focused on the intersection of technology, creativity, and human potential, helping people "future-proof" with AI.
- Early YouTube content creator with 750 million views, advising Fortune 500 companies on digital strategy.
- Created I AM AI, the first AI-composed pop album, and premiered the documentary I AM HUMAN on brain-computer interfaces at Tribeca.
- Chief Storytelling Officer at a neurotech company, working on brain-computer interfaces for neurological patients.
Biography
Meet Taryn Southern
Taryn Southern is an award-winning storyteller and creative technologist exploring the intersection of emerging tech and human potential. Her groundbreaking creative experiments blend technological innovation with the human experience, offering unique insights into how we can engage technology to lead more creative, joyful, healthy, and productive lives.
A true digital media pioneer, Taryn’s career began at the forefront of the online content revolution. In 2007, she hosted and produced a TV series documenting her travels to meet MySpace friends and uploaded her first viral video to YouTube. Over the next decade, she created over 1500 videos garnering more than 1 billion views.
In 2017, Taryn began experimenting with emerging technologies to push the boundaries of her creative work. She composed the world’s first AI album, which landed on the Top 100 US Radio Charts and received widespread media attention. She then combined VR, blockchain, AI, and spatial computing to create an award-winning Google VR series, earning her the AT&T Film Award. Her directorial debut, “I AM HUMAN,” a documentary on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, won numerous awards, and is now available on Apple and Amazon.
Since 2021, Taryn has served as Chief Storyteller at a leading implantable neurotechnology company, where she launched the world’s first BCI museum and oversaw communications strategy for two successful funding rounds totaling over $250M+. An advocate of women in science and tech, she has also angel invested in future-forward companies such as Oura, Etched, Extend Fertility, Vessel Health, and Forever Labs.
Taryn’s creative expertise spans both traditional and new media. She has guest-starred on primetime network TV shows, sold a musical comedy pilot to MTV, co-hosted Discovery Channel’s #1 late-night show, and created digital series for Conde Naste, AirBnB, The Today Show, Snapchat, and Maker Studios. She was an early advisor to YouTube, Google VR, and Snapchat product teams, and consulted for companies like Conde Nast and Marriott on their digital content strategy and narrative design.
A three-time Streamy Awards nominee, Taryn received the Geena Davis Award in 2018 for her work as an innovative female filmmaker. Her contributions have been featured in Vanity Fair, Billboard, Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review, shaping the discourse on technology’s role in our lives.
Videos
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Speaking videos
Topics
Unlock Creativity & Bold Storytelling with AI
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 the key lessons for optimizing individual and collective creativity and demonstrates how you can use AI to craft powerful, imaginative stories.
No Limits: Future-Proof Your Life with Generative AI
Pioneering content creator Taryn Southern has always had a front row seat to the future. As one of the first content creators on YouTube, she was part of a media revolution that changed every aspect of business and personal life. Since that time, she has broken new ground across AI, blockchain, virtual reality, and neurotechnology. Then in 2019, Taryn found herself facing a series of unexpected life events that challenged her optimism and resilience. In this session, Taryn shares the mind-blowing AI technologies that you can use to inspire creativity, outside-the-box thinking, and personal transformation in your business – and life.
Themes:
- Ways to tactically transform your life with AI – productivity, wellbeing
- How to think outside the box with AI
- Changing norms: work smarter, not harder
The Future *Isn’t* What You Think (or is it?)
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.
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, Taryn shares the remarkable stories of some 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, and 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?
When Things Go South: Finding Resilience with Ancient & Modern Technologies
A pioneering storyteller, anthropologist, 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 devastating breakup, the loss of her home, and a burglary that left 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 emerged: one that found room for humor, pragmatism, and a little 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 neuroscience can help you find resilience and possibility in the face of extreme uncertainty.
Takeaways:
- How insights from old & new technologies can be used to reduce stress, enhance resilience, and turn pain into purpose
- Navigating uncertainty and fear
- Why sharing your story is critical for wellbeing
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