AUSTIN, the United States, March 8 (Xinhua) -- South by Southwest, an annual interactive feast spanning from new technologies and tendencies to film world premieres, individual music and extended reality experiences, descended Friday on Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas.

"South by Southwest (SXSW) has to offer by going outside their comfort zones," Hugh Forrest, SXSW co-president and chief programming officer, said in his welcoming remarks Friday.

"We believe that the power of massive creativity is amplified significantly when creative people from different industries connect with each other," he said.

Hot topics this year range from artificial intelligence (AI), space exploration, new trends of healthcare and mobility during the packed SXSW conference with more than 400 sessions.

During the opening session, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón read her poem chosen to be sent as an inspirational message out to the depths of space by NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is set to launch in October this year.

Among big influencers in the business and technology world, AMD CEO Lisa Su, ChatGPT chief Peter Deng and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, are set to share their visions of leading-edge AI and computing technologies and future challenges they are facing in the nine-day feast.

There is also a celebration of the International Women's Day, the same day of the SXSW opening, ranging from a 5-kilometer run joined by more than 100 joggers to book reading of Space Feminisms: Reimaging People, Planets and Power, parties with live music and a number of celebrities' talks.

Netflix's TV series 3 Body Problem, directed by Derek Tsang based on Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin's novel, is to make a world premiere on Friday night, the opening night of the SXSW Film and TV Festival.

"I'm excited to be here to hear the variety of talks ... I have a personal interest in healthcare and technology," Robert Villarreal, a retiree from northern Texas, told Xinhua.

"We want to understand new trends. We want to understand the impact of AI in different industries and have new knowledge about different things," Juanita Lodriguec, a second-time European visitor with her friends, told Xinhua. "We expect our minds to flow out again this year."

The annual festival can be traced back to 1987. Around 2000, SXSW started to focus more on emerging technologies and has earned the reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. Enditem

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