HUTCHINSON, Kan. –Taryn Southern, a Wichita native known for her work combining technology with creativity, presented the 177th Lecture of the Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series at Hutchinson Community College on Tuesday.
Southern, who is credited with creating one of the world’s first AI-generated pop albums, focused her talk on the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). She emphasized that AI serves as a powerful supporting contributor, effectively removing the barrier of cost that often restricts creativity.
However, her discussion extended far beyond the creative space. Southern urged the audience to explore AI’s potential personally, saying, “The only way you really know how it’s going to benefit you in your life, is by using it, figuring out novel ways to apply it.”
In addition to her role at a leading neurotechnology company, Southern teaches a class in the United Arab Emirates, instructing business and engineering students on the responsible use of AI for communication and storytelling. She offered a key piece of advice for using the technology responsibly: “Actually learning the raw skills of journalism, of writing, of critical thinking, of problem solving.”
She explained that this foundation allows people to use AI as an “editing co-partner,” increasing the quality of output. “Use AI to replace the skills you don’t have, so that you can do more of what you’re good at,” she advised.
Southern also drew parallels between the human brain and AI, noting her learnings from the neurotechnology field. “We are not all that different from our AI machine cousins,” she said, explaining that AI learns similarly to how children develop insights-through repetition and trial and error. “In many ways, AI’s are just little human brains that have a much greater capacity for storing and accessing immense amounts of data.”
Acknowledging the darker side of AI, Southern stressed the importance of preparedness against scams, such as the simple cloning of a person’s voice and likeness. She recommended developing a secure family password, as “scams are running rampant right now.” In the face of social media misinformation, her instruction was clear: “Question everything that you see.” She also shared that tools like Google Gemini can help identify if a piece of news is legitimate.
Despite the risks, Southern expressed excitement about technological advancements, citing numerous “goosebump moments.” Her most significant “hair-raising moment” occurred in February with the release of Claude, a conversational AI chatbot that has become her most-used AI. Southern recounted using Claude to organize her medical records in just one hour, creating a professional-looking app to track files and health changes.
“This is crazy, this is life-changing for people,” Southern concluded, highlighting the benefits of current AI technology.
