Techies — here’s what to watch, read and listen to in April

We’ve got a tech influencer to follow, a landmark sci-fi movie, a thought-provoking book, a fantastic podcast, and a video game-inspired series

Spring has (finally) sprung, as it tends to do around this time of year, and with it comes my latest bloom of tech entertainment options for your annual Easter egg fest. From byte-sized podcasts to epic blockbusters, there was no shortage of options to choose from this month. But I’ve picked a few of my favourite, so prepare to interface with a properly tech-tastic lineup.

Fear not, I haven’t gone too hard with the puns beyond my intro this time — so they shouldn’t cause system overload!

FOLLOW: Louis Rosenberg

I had the great pleasure of meeting Louis Rosenberg PhD — Unanimous AI CEO and a pioneer in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) — in 2003 (I think) at a global conference.

His writing on the influence of these and other emerging technologies on humanity is truly inspirational. Check it out at VentureBeat and Big Think. I particularly recommend his work on The AI Manipulation Problem, which proposes that one of the greatest dangers of the metaverse and conversational AI, when combined, is:

“The potential deployment of real-time interactive experiences that are designed to persuade, coerce, or manipulate users as a form of AI-powered targeted influence.”

Follow Rosenberg on LinkedIn and Twitter.

FILM: Metropolis

I’m feeling a golden oldie this Easter, so my first recommendation is Metropolis. Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent sci-fi film transports viewers to a futuristic city where the wealthy live in luxury and the poor toil in factories to keep the urban cogs turning.

We follow the son of the city’s ruler, who falls for a working-class woman and discovers…