Tech Together: Move Fast and Tell Jokes

Written By David Polgar

On September 22, All Tech Is Human, the Siegel Family Endowment, and the Stanford d.school held the tech comedy event you didn’t know you needed. Diving headfirst into the current moment of AI hype and doom, Tech Together: Move Fast & Tell Jokes included a warm-up of puns, statistics, and comedic group therapy from David Ryan Polgar (Founder & President of All Tech Is Human) and Katy Knight (President & Executive Director of All Tech Is Human). Their routine also brought forth some of the over 100 submissions we received from audience members to the question, “What is one weird, unusual, or unexpected way that AI is impacting your life?” (Check out some of the submissions below)


This was followed by stand-up routines from comedian Chuck Nice and writer/performer Pratima Mani. Directly following the stand-up, we went into a freewheelin’ panel where we brought back Katy, Chuck, and Pratima, along with welcoming noted media theorist and NYT-bestselling author Douglas Rushkoff. And we ended the stage activities with a creative exercise by the Stanford d.school.


Select responses to the question, “What is a weird, unusual, or unexpected way that AI is altering your life?”

Answers fell into five categories:

  • Existential shifts and societal impact

  • Disillusionment, skepticism, and “AI Slop”

  • Authenticity, human identity, and communication

  • Personal life, parenting, and home

  • Work, productivity, and practical assistance

  • “AI has given me the dangerous belief that every random idea I have at 10pm should become a company by midnight.”-Janna Salokangas,Founder, CEO of themia.AI

  • “I'm using AI for recipes and my food has never tasted so horrible.”-Rodrigo Camarena,Founder / Chief Innovation Officer, Justicia Lab / Scale Justice

  • “I leave typing mistakes in my writing to prove I'm human.”-Cecilia Dones,Lecturer at Columbia University

  • “It's taken over my brain.”-Jim Fruchterman,CEO of Tech Matters

  • “Begrudgingly, the plants in my house are thriving thanks to AI. I didn't know that 'green thumb' would come from how my thumbs type out a prompt…”-Alice Anselmi,Chief of Staff at Seismic Foundation

  • “Why, oh why do we need obvious AI photos of food on restaurant menus?!”-Gina Papabeis

  • “Arguing on the internet isn't even fun anymore! Everyone is either using AI to argue (not fun) or using AI for other things, which is making them too dumb to argue!”-Olivia Nelson

  • “I mean... I didn't have mass extinction before 2100 on my bingo card.”-Jan Gerlach

  • “AI has transformed my wardrobe. Apparently, personal style was just a prompting problem.”-Sophie Owens, Senior Director, Strategic Philanthropy, Fast Forward

  • “We are now reviewing our kids’ teachers’ AI policies with greater scrutiny 🤨”-Stephanie Seale, Advisor, UN Human Rights B-Tech

David Polgar
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