Photo via Twitter/Jon Swartz
Photo via Twitter/Jon Swartz

“Keep Austin weird,” is the slogan of SXSW’s hometown. And, in keeping with the true spirit of Austin, it seems like no better time or place for a “robot protest,” than during SXSW’s uber-geeky Interactive conference.

This weekend, about two dozen protestors took to the streets with signs that read “Humans are the future” and “Stop the robots,” according to this report by USA Today, with its tech reporter Jon Swartz posting this pic to Twitter:

“This is is about morality in computing,” protest organizer Adam Mason told Swartz. The article also points out that there are valid concerns about AI in the future within the scientific community, including from Tesla/SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking.

And while fears of what these future ‘bots will do to us once they get the power and will to do so, one SXSW goer pointed out what we really should be concerned about:

“People worry about robots taking over the world, but I assure you there are much more dangerous things (income inequality and global warming) in front of the line,” Phil Libin, CEO of software firm Evernote, told Swartz. “Humans should be more worried about other humans.”

You keep on being you, Austin.

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