Technologist Tristan Harris has an urgent question: What if the way we’re deploying the world’s most powerful technology — artificial intelligence — isn’t inevitable, but a choice? In this eye-opening talk, he calls on us to learn from the mistakes of social media’s catastrophic rollout and confront the predictable dangers of reckless AI development, offering a “narrow path” where power is matched with responsibility, foresight and wisdom.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Back in 2017, technology ethicist Tristan Harris took to the TED stage to offer a prescient warning about the dangers of social media. Now he's out with another urgent concern about the most powerful technology we've ever created, AI.
In this new talk, Tristan urges us to learn from the mistakes of the past and confront the consequences of what he calls a reckless deployment of AI technologies. He says a harmonious future with AI is possible so long as we choose it. And make sure to come back to this feed later this afternoon.
Tristan and I actually sat down in Vancouver right after his talk to reflect more on his idea, his work, and what keeps him going.
So I've always been a technologist. And eight years ago, on this stage, I was warning about the problems of social media. And I saw how a lack of clarity around the downsides of that technology and kind of an inability to really confront those consequences led to a totally preventable societal catastrophe.
And I'm here today because I don't want us to make that mistake with AI, and I want us to choose differently. So at TED, we're often here to dream about the possibles of new technology. And the possible with social media was obviously we're going to give everyone a voice, democratize speech, help people connect with their friends.
But we don't talk about the probable, what's actually likely to happen due to the incentives, and how the business models of maximizing engagement I saw 10 years ago would obviously lead to rewarding doomscrolling, more addiction, more distraction, and that resulted in the most anxious and depressed generation of our lifetime.
Now, it was interesting watching kind of how this happened, because at first I saw people kind of doubt these consequences. You know, we didn't really want to face it. Then we said, well, maybe this is just a new moral panic. Maybe this is just a reflexive fear of new technology. Then the data started rolling in. And then we said, well, this is just inevitable.
This is just what happens when you connect people on the internet. But we had a chance. to make a different choice about the business models of engagement. And had we made that choice 10 years ago, I want you to reimagine how different the world might have been if we had changed that incentive. So I'm here today because we're here to talk about AI.
And AI dwarfs the power of all other technologies combined. Now, why is that? Because if you make an advance in, say, biotech, that doesn't advance energy and rocketry. But if you make an advance in rocketry, that doesn't advance biotech.
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