Connexion
Artificial intelligence has become one of the great topics of our age. We read about it daily, we marvel at its abilities, and we worry about its dangers. Beneath the excitement and anxiety, there are some deeper conversations we are still failing to have: questions about how we — as thinkers, leaders and builders — can shape the world we will all have to live in with AI. And the window to answer these questions is closing fast.
That’s why, for three remarkable days, we will gather in the heart of Europe, in Vienna, Austria, to dedicate our time and attention to the most crucial conversations on AI — and especially the ones we are not yet having. These are questions that shape how our daily lives unfold, how our markets operate and how our political systems function. At TEDAI Vienna, we will create space for nuance and contradiction, foster genuine debate and dive into three conversations — uncomfortable and yet necessary — that we must have at this moment in history before it’s too late.
(Photo: Cherie Hansson / TEDAI Vienna)
In the age of AI, there’s a growing risk that we’ll grow accustomed to answers that come too easily. We might one day realize that what we’ve lost isn’t our intelligence but, perhaps even worse, our patience for thinking. The beauty and burden of critical thinking isn’t about knowing the answer: it’s about learning how to doubt, to compare, to weigh and to hold a question in the mind long enough to see its complexities. At TEDAI Vienna, researcher Advait Sarkar will premiere new work tools which, if used well, can become a partner in this process: tools that ask us better questions, challenge our assumptions and sharpen our reasoning. But we can’t allow the conversation to stop there. As technological progress accelerates at astonishing speed, we must ask ourselves: What could thinking and consciousness look like for a superintelligent mind? Philosopher Joscha Bach will lead us through this profound question and share his latest research insights from the frontier of machine consciousness.
(Photo: Robert Leslie / TEDAI Vienna)
We often speak of AI as if it were born in just one small corner of the world. But in truth, AI is now everywhere. At TEDAI Vienna, we’ll hear from Oriol Vinyals, technical lead of Gemini at Google DeepMind, on how AI is being advanced in research labs in the UK; from policymakers such as Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of the EU Commission, shaping its governance; from Hiroaki Kitano, president of Sony CSL in Japan, applying it to robotics; from Mercedes Bidart, empowering micro-entrepreneurs in Colombia to harness its potential; and from Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, bringing it into classrooms across Mongolia.
We can no longer afford to view AI through the lens of a single location or discipline. Our world, our economies, our lives, are too interconnected. The rules we set in one place will reverberate everywhere, while the benefits and harms will know no borders. To guide AI wisely, we need the insights, values and priorities of a truly global conversation — and it will require the participation of each and every one of us.
(Photo: Cherie Hansson / TEDAI Vienna)
We often describe AI in the language of competition: a race. The problem with a race is that it ends at a finish line. There are clear winners and losers, and once it’s over, there is little thought for what comes next.
A more helpful metaphor might be that of building a home. A home is created slowly, with care and cooperation. It involves many skills and perspectives: architects and builders, but also designers, leaders, educators, economists and the people who will live there, shaping it with their needs and hopes. A home must be safe, open to visitors and strong enough to last through storms.
If we thought of building AI as building a home, we might place more value on the long-term work of trust, fairness and accessibility. We might remember that everyone — whether they helped design it or not — will have to live within its walls. And we might focus less on being the fastest to build it and more on ensuring it is worth inhabiting.
Few people in the world can speak to this better than Verity Harding, who will take the stage at TEDAI Vienna to share her incisive view on why the arms-race metaphor is leading us astray, and how we might instead imagine a better and bolder path forward.
These three conversations — about our thinking habits, the global nature of AI and the metaphors we use — are not peripheral. They are the foundation for a future in which AI is not something that happens to us but something we shape together. From TED Talks to small-circle debates, from deep-dive thematic dinners to relaxed get-togethers, at TEDAI Vienna we’re building an environment to hold space for these conversations. Whether you’re a technology builder, a business leader, a creative or a researcher, now is the time to show up and help lay the foundations of the AI future we will all inhabit.
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“We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start,” says investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr. In a searing talk — the first published from TED2025: Humanity Reimagined — she details a fast-moving technological coup and the rise of the “broligarchy”: an unprecedentedly powerful class of tech executives (like Elon Musk) who are complicit in dismantling democracy and enabling authoritarian control across the world. She shares a guide on how to digitally disobey in this age of runaway corporate power, data harvesting and mass surveillance — and reminds you that you have more power than you think. Watch the full talk on TED.com.
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TED Tech will take place in London, September 18-19, 2023.
TED and the UK-based company Culture3 have announced a collaboration to launch the first TED Tech conference, to be held September 18-19 in London, England. Together, TED Tech and Culture3 hope to build optimism and accountability around the impact of AI, blockchain and extended reality.
The inaugural TED Tech will kick off Culture3 Week, a four-day festival bringing together the world of art, business and technology to investigate the ideas shaping culture and society. It’s TED’s first all-tech-focused conference.
This isn’t just another tech conference. TED and Culture3 have designed a uniquely connected experience that combines TED’s signature talks and conversations with a Culture3-curated ideas forum of real-world applications, art exhibits and industry-shaping demonstrations and announcements. Attendees will hear TED speakers and Culture3-curated experts dive into the latest advancements in tech that are radically transforming the world around us.
Attendees will gather to consider the questions that matter most:
We’ll bring together brilliant minds — artists, creators, technologists and entrepreneurs — to discuss, debate and create the future of the internet. The first TED Tech will be hosted in London, where a vibrant ecosystem of start-ups, tech giants and universities fuel innovation.
TED Tech will take place in London on September 18-19, 2023. If you want to be at the forefront of the conversation and join a powerful group of business and community leaders, innovators and creators, register now »
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The Audacious Project is TED’s collaborative funding initiative to put ideas for social change into action. Today, we launched eight new talks from this year’s cohort, featuring some of the world’s boldest changemakers and their ideas to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges. Collectively this group has secured more than $900 million in funding from the Audacious Project, matching their transformative ideas with catalytic resources. Learn more at AudaciousProject.org, and watch the talks at TED.com/AudaciousProject.
A safe pathway to resettlement for migrants and refugees
Becca Heller, International Refugee Assistance Project
Why Indigenous forest guardianship is crucial to climate action
Nonette Royo, Tenure Facility
How ancient Arctic carbon threatens everyone on the planet
Sue Natali, Woodwell Climate Research Center
Mental health care that disrupts cycles of violence
Celina De Sola, Glasswing International
An election redesign to restore trust in US democracy
Tiana Epps-Johnson, Center for Tech and Civic Life
A transparent, easy way for smallholder farmers to save
Anushka Ratnayake, myAgro
A bold plan for transforming access to the US social safety net
Amanda Renteria, Code for America
The most powerful untapped resource in health care
Edith Elliott and Shahed Alam, Noora Health
The billion-dollar campaign to electrify transport
Monica Araya, ClimateWorks: Drive Electric
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Audacious Project executive director Anna Verghese and head of TED Chris Anderson onstage at TED2019 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The 2021-22 cohort features nine audacious responses to some of the world’s biggest challenges. (Photo: Dian Lofton / TED)
Communities around the globe are grappling with division and uncertainty. Lasting and transformative change on the world’s most pressing challenges will require us to work together and find common ground. At The Audacious Project, we aspire to be a lever for courageous collaboration, supporting those who are reimagining and rebuilding our systems to better meet the demands of this moment.
This past year, the Audacious community has come together to catalyze more than $900 million for nine bold projects. Sourced from our global network, and supported by our team over the past 12 months, these projects hope to create clear pathways to a better future.
The 2021-22 Audacious Project grantees are:
These projects reflect continued collaboration between a group of global partners, philanthropic organizations and determined individuals who believe in the power of pooling significant, long-term resources in service of impact. Our hope is that this inspires others to engage in the work too.
This new cohort joins an existing Audacious portfolio of 29 projects, with over $3.1 billion of philanthropic dollars catalyzed since 2015. Four cycles into this program, the Audacious projects together reveal a powerful truth: the problems we face are not intractable, and the status quo is not inevitable.
We look forward to sharing these new projects with you next week at TED2022 during the Audacious session co-hosted by Academy Award nominee and Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody Award winner Ava DuVernay, and we very much hope you’ll join us in supporting and amplifying their work far and wide.
With gratitude and determined hope,
Anna Verghese, executive director of The Audacious Project
Chris Anderson, head of TED
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Your Undivided Attention, a podcast from Center for Humane Technology, has joined the TED Audio Collective, a collection of podcasts for the curious.
Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the incredible power that technology has over our lives — for good and for bad. Featuring in-depth conversations with academics, activists, and experts discussing the impact of technology in political, social and economic change, Your Undivided Attention centers around the urgent need for humane technology that supports our shared well-being and ability to tackle complex global challenges.
“The current technology ecosystem profits from attention, polarization and deepening extremism, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Tristan Harris, co-host of Your Undivided Attention and co-founder of Center for Humane Technology. “At Center for Humane Technology, we believe that technology that protects our well-being and unleashes the very best of humanity is possible. That’s why we’re thrilled that Your Undivided Attention is joining the TED Audio Collective so we can share our learnings from inspiring leaders across sectors on what we can do together to catalyze a more humane future.”
Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, along with Randima Fernando, also founded Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit organization dedicated to radically reimagining our digital infrastructure and driving a comprehensive shift toward humane technology that supports our collective well-being, democracy and shared information environment. Harris and Raskin were featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, which explored the machinations of social media and its grip on civilization.
TED’s director of audio Michelle Quint shares, “We’re excited to support the urgent and essential mission of Your Undivided Attention and proud the show has chosen the TED Audio Collective as its new home.”
Your Undivided Attention will remain ad-free as a part of the TED Audio Collective.
Your Undivided Attention joins TED Audio Collective
“The single biggest threat of climate change is the collapse of food systems,” says journalist Amanda Little, quoting USDA scientist Jerry Hatfield. “Addressing this challenge as much as any other is going to define our progress in the coming century.” She speaks at TED Salon: Dell Technologies on October 22, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)
In a time that feels unsettled and uncertain, technology and those who create it will play a crucial role in what’s coming next. How do we define that future, as opposed to letting it define us? At a special TED Salon held as part of the Dell Technologies World conference and hosted by TED’s Simone Ross, four speakers shared ideas for building a future where tech and humanity are combined in a more active, deliberate and thoughtful way.
The talks in brief:
Genevieve Bell, ethical AI expert
Big idea: To create a sustainable, efficient and safe future for artificial intelligence systems, we need to ask questions that contextualize the history of technology and create possibilities for the next generation of critical thinkers to build upon it.
How? Making a connection between AI and the built world is a hard story to tell, but that’s exactly what Genevieve Bell and her team at 3A Institute are doing: adding to the rich legacy of AI systems, while establishing a new branch of engineering that can sustainably bring cyber-physical systems and AI to scale going forward. “To build on that legacy and our sense of purpose, I think we need a clear framework for asking questions about the future, questions for which there aren’t ready or easy answers,” Bell says. She shares six nuanced questions that frame her approach: Is the system autonomous? Does the system have agency? How do we think about assurance (is it safe and functioning)? How do we interface with it? What will be the indicators that show it is working well? And finally, what is its intent? With these questions, we can broaden our understanding of the systems we create and how they will function in the years to come.
Amanda Little, food journalist
Big idea: To build a robust, resilient and diverse food future in the face of complex challenges, we need a “third way” forward — blending the best of traditional agriculture with cutting-edge new technologies.
How? COVID-19 has simultaneously paralyzed already vulnerable global food systems and ushered in food shortages — despite a surplus of technological advances. How will we continue to feed a growing population? Amanda Little has an idea: “Our challenge is to borrow from the wisdom of the ages and from our most advanced science to [a] third way: one that allows us to improve and scale our harvest while restoring, rather than degrading the underlying land of life.” Amid increasingly complex disruptions like climate change, this “third way” provides a roadmap to food security that marries old agricultural production with new, innovative farming practices — like using robots to deploy fertilizer on crop fields with sniper-like precision, eating lab-grown meats and building aeroponic farms. By nixing antiquated supply chains and producing food in a scalable, sustainable and adaptable way, Little shows just how bright our food future might be. Watch the full talk.
“Investing in data quality and accuracy is essential to making AI possible — not only for the few and privileged but for everyone in society,” says data scientist Mainak Mazumdar. He speaks at TED Salon: Dell Technologies on October 22, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)
Mainak Mazumdar, data scientist
Big idea: When the pursuit of using AI to make fair and equitable decisions fails, blame the data — not the algorithms.
Why? The future economy won’t be built by factories and people, but by computers and algorithms — for better or for worse. To make AI possible for humanity and society, we need an urgent reset in three major areas: data infrastructure, data quality and data literacy. Together, they hold the key to ethical decision-making in the age of AI. Mazumdar lists how less-than-quality data in examples such as the 2020 US Census and marketing research could lead to poor results in trying to reach and help specific demographics. Right now, AI is only reinforcing and accelerating our bias at speed and scale, with societal implications in its wake. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Instead of racing to build new algorithms, our mission should be to build a better data infrastructure that makes ethical AI possible.
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, multimedia musician
Big idea: Modern computing is founded on patterns, so could you translate the patterns of code and data into music? If so, what would the internet sound like?
How? Cultural achievements throughout human history, like music and architecture, are based on pattern recognition, math and the need to organize information — and the internet is no different. Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky gives a tour of how the internet came to be, from the conception of software by Ada Lovelace in the early 1800s to the development of early computers catalyzed by World War II and the birth of the internet beginning in 1969. Today, millions of devices are plugged into the internet, sending data zooming around the world. By transforming the internet’s router connections and data sets into sounds, beats and tempos, Miller introduces “Quantopia,” a portrait of the internet in sound. A special auditory and visual experience, this internet soundscape reveals the patterns that connect us all.
Amanda Little speaks at TED@Dell, October 22, 2020. Photo courtesy of TED.
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