“The ultimate sitting machine.” Please be kind — this is only my first attempt at a tagline for the BMW autonomous vehicle which I just went for a test drive, er, test ride in. Yes, I can proudly say that I’ve gone for a ride in the future — and it’s smooth enough to eat […]
A year ago, Sarah Parcak revealed her TED Prize wish: a citizen science platform for archaeology to let people around the world help find and protect ancient sites. Yesterday night, she returned to the TED stage to share what’s happened since. After a year of work with partners National Geographic and DigitalGlobe, GlobalXplorer launched in late January […]
Two hundred years ago, the Luddites rebelled against weaving technology. In 1964, US President Lyndon B. Johnson received “The Triple Revolution” memo that laid out the threat of job displacement due to automation. We’ve been concerned about technology displacing humans for a long time, says futurist Martin Ford. And that’s had a strange effect on us. “Because of […]
As people worry about the growing power of computers, the first soldier in the human-machine battle is here with a reassuring message: “This is excellent, excellent news,” says Garry Kasparov, regarded by many as the greatest chess player in history. In 1997, Kasparov very memorably lost a match to IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue. (“Nobody remembers that I won […]
Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant remembers the day in 1974 when, while working for the United Nations in India, a mother handed him her young son, who had died only moments earlier from smallpox. Brilliant also remembers the day, about a year later, when he traveled by speedboat to an island in Bangladesh and met a 3-year-old […]
In Kingston, Jamaica, 4- to 6-year-olds in early education programs think about questions like, “What does it mean to be selfish?” In a school on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, fifth graders research topics like, “What is WordPress?” In rural Colombia, students at local libraries puzzle over prompts like, “Why are yawns contagious?” The School in […]
“Let’s skip ahead and assume that children of the future are always connected,” said education innovator Sugata Mitra. Thinking out loud about the evolution of screen sizes and the future of wearables, he came to the conclusion: “The Internet is a subject as important as science or mathematics.” Mitra shared this in a presentation at […]
Something huge is coming, and it sounds like an ad for a bag of potato chips. CRISPR, which makes gene editing so cheap and easy a talented high schooler could do it, is the latest technology that promises to radically change the world. But what exactly can it do, and what are the potential dangers? […]
Today at TED2016 in Vancouver, Peter Diamandis of the X Prize joined Dave Kenny of IBM Watson to announce a thrilling new prize in cognitive computing: The IBM Watson AI X Prize presented by TED, a $5 million competition to develop and demonstrate a powerful collaboration between human and artificial intelligence. The winner of this competition […]
On technologist Haley Van Dyck’s first day working for the government, in 2008, she was handed a laptop that ran Windows 98. “Three presidential elections had come and gone since the government had updated its operating system,” she says. “That’s when we realized: the problem is bigger than we imagined.” Van Dyck is the co-founder […]
You’re standing on a small platform: Someone snaps you into a heavy vest, and pulls a clunky helmet over your eyes. Before you can adjust to the extra weight, suddenly the world has a strange echo, and all other noise falls away. Your surroundings are now a rumbling Tomb Raider-themed universe, and you are its hero. […]
Attention all engineers, inventors, makers, technology professionals and enthusiasts! TED is seeking jaw-dropping tech demos or talks, to be shared at our 2016 conference in Vancouver. The ideal talk/demo will feature a new piece of technology that can be shown in just a few minutes from the stage, tell us about something brand-new, or offer […]
Dame Stephanie Shirley had just a few hours to go before giving her talk at TEDWomen 2013. There was just one problem: she could hardly speak. Shirley, a tech entrepreneur who founded a software company in the 1960s, had flown from London to San Francisco to speak at the conference. Her talk told the story […]
Most human beings can tell the difference between a smirk and a smile. Our computers and devices, however? Not so much. Fifteen years ago, Rana el Kaliouby left her home in Egypt to study computer science at Cambridge. With her husband at home, she found herself homesick. “I realized I was spending more hours with my laptop than any other human,” she […]
Our 29-member Technology Team is spread out. TED HQ is in New York, but our team includes developers who live in six other states — from Florida to Oregon, with a stopoff in South Dakota — and two other countries. (Yes, tech talent doesn’t always reside in New York and San Francisco.) There are big […]
A three-wheeled half-motorcycle half-car, the Toyota i-Road is imagined as a future for urban transportation — tiny, battery-powered and hyper maneuverable, perfect for zipping along tightly packed urban streets. The concept car was launched in March 2013, but there are only three i-Roads in North America right now, and all of them are at TED2015 this week. Which is why I found myself down in the loading dock of the […]