These talks reveal how our technology often reflects the unconscious biases and prejudices we hold.

Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side -- and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial.

Listening to both customers and colleagues to gather insights and information is a key ability that successful people possess. Tony Salvador shares some strategies for being a better listener: to lose preconceptions, be vulnerable and open to new ideas, and to not be afraid to hear what we'd rather not hear.

We all have bias -- especially the unconscious kind -- and it's preventing us from doing our best work. Gone unchecked, bias can make employees feel resentful, frustrated and silenced, and it can even lead to outright discrimination and harassment. Check out three key ways to reduce bias at work, according to Just Work cofounders Kim Scott and T...

Two decades into his career photographer Levon Biss decided to cast aside humans and focus on a new subject: insects. In this visual talk, Biss explains how he developed a fascinating process using composite macro-photography to capture stunning images of creatures that measure mere millimeters.

Photographer Levon Biss was looking for a new, extraordinary subject when one afternoon he and his young son popped a ground beetle under a microscope and discovered the wondrous world of insects. Applying his knowledge of photography to subjects just five millimeters long, Biss created a process for shooting insects in unbelievable microscopic ...

Fixable How to outsmart bias at work January 29, 2024 [00:00:00] Anne Morriss: Hello, Frances. [00:00:01] Frances Frei: Hey, beautiful. [00:00:02] Anne Morriss: I wanna start off today by talking a little bit about one of my favorite subjects, which I know— [00:00:10] Frances Frei: Does not narrow it down at all. [00:00:12] Anne Morris...

Have you ever felt like something about your identity was getting in the way of your success? On this episode of Fixable, another podcast from the TED Audio Collective, a listener needs help pushing through the resistance she's facing as a woman navigating a male-dominated workplace. Fixable hosts Anne Morriss and Frances Frei discuss what you c...

What if we could build a global waste disposal service for carbon? In this forward-thinking talk, carbon capture advisor Bas Sudmeijer proposes building CO2 networks: partnerships between cities around the world that would share the cost and geological resources needed to trap emissions deep in the earth -- and give us a shot at stalling climate...

WorkLife with Adam Grant Tuesday, May 18, 2021 ADAM GRANT: Hi WorkLifers, a quick warning that in this episode we discuss the murder of George Floyd. TYECE WILKINS: It wasn't until Saturday evening that I allowed the tears to flow. Sitting underneath a cotton candy pink sky. I put on Mali Music's Gonna be all right. And try to let the music ...

Equity expert Sara Sanford offers a certified playbook that helps companies go beyond good intentions, using a data-driven standard to actively counter unconscious bias and foster gender equity -- by changing how workplaces operate, not just how people think.

We've all been to bias training, but it rarely works—and sometimes backfires. Science suggests that to drive real change, it's not enough to run one-off workshops. We need to change individual and organizational habits. Find out how people can overcome their own prejudices and workplaces can break barriers to help marginalized groups advance int...

MIT grad student Joy Buolamwini was working with facial analysis software when she noticed a problem: the software didn't detect her face -- because the people who coded the algorithm hadn't taught it to identify a broad range of skin tones and facial structures. Now she's on a mission to fight bias in machine learning, a phenomenon she calls th...

Search engines have become our most trusted sources of information and arbiters of truth. But can we ever get an unbiased search result? Swedish author and journalist Andreas Ekström argues that such a thing is a philosophical impossibility. In this thoughtful talk, he calls on us to strengthen the bonds between technology and the humanities, an...

While doctors take an oath to do no harm, there's a good chance their unconscious biases can seep into how seriously they treat pain. Physician Sheetal DeCaria explains how perception impacts medical care and treatment -- and calls for health care professionals to check in with themselves before checking in with their patients. Stay tuned after...

While doctors take an oath to do no harm, there's a good chance their unconscious biases can seep into how seriously they take your pain. Physician Sheetal DeCaria explains how perception impacts medical care and treatment -- and calls for health care professionals to check in with how they do their patient checkups.

What shapes our perceptions (and misperceptions) about science? In an eye-opening talk, meteorologist J. Marshall Shepherd explains how confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect and cognitive dissonance impact what we think we know -- and shares ideas for how we can replace them with something much more powerful: knowledge.

AI algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for car insurance or whether or not you get that job interview. But what happens when these machines are built with human bias coded into their systems? Technologist Kriti Sharma explores how the lack of diversity in tech is creeping into our AI, offeri...

When Kyle Quinn married his Brazilian wife and brought her home to the United States, he assumed the difficult part was over and that they could forge a happy life together. What he didn't anticipate was a front-row seat to the indignities—big and small—that immigrants face on a regular basis. In a deeply personal talk, he acknowledges how his w...

Electro-pop artist Buzz unfurls an enchanting, genre-bending performance of three original songs.

Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and ...

The TED AI Show Why isn’t anyone fixing AI’s bias problem? w/ Patrick Lin June 11, 2024 [00:00:00] Bilawal Sidhu: My morning routine goes something like this. I wake up, hit snooze a couple times, finally get outta bed and make myself a cup of tea. The tea is probably the most important part, and then I sit down with my tea and look at Twitter ...

One day a pair of brothers working together as shoemakers had an explosive fight that split the family business in two. Over the coming years, this disagreement divided their town— residents and businesses chose sides. Could such a serious divide really be about shoes? Doesn't it take more significant differences to produce this degree of confli...

With his "Microsculpture" series, Levon Biss photographs the incredible details of insects.

Ever have the sneaking suspicion your vote doesn't really matter? Software engineer Brian Olson has designed a powerful algorithm that transforms gerrymandered districts into vibrant, perfectly impartial state maps so that every vote counts.

How can a super-thin 3-inch disk levitate something 70,000 times its own weight? In a riveting demonstration, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail -- completely frictionlessly and with zero energy loss. Experiment: Prof. Guy Deutscher, Mishael Azoulay, Boaz Almog, o...

In May 1940, with the German army ready to occupy Paris, Noor Inayat Khan was faced with a difficult choice: stand on the sidelines or join the Allied forces fighting the Nazis. After witnessing the devastation across Europe, she travelled to England to learn the art of espionage. Shrabani Basu details how a pacifist turned spy helped build the ...

AI won't kill us all — but that doesn't make it trustworthy. Instead of getting distracted by future existential risks, AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni thinks we need to focus on the technology's current negative impacts, like emitting carbon, infringing copyrights and spreading biased information. She offers practical solutions to regulate ...

BCG's Bas Sudmeijer is a managing director and partner in the firm's London office.

At TED2012, filmmaker Karen Bass shares some of the astonishing nature footage she's shot for the BBC and National Geographic -- including brand-new, previously unseen footage of the tube-lipped nectar bat, who feeds in a rather unusual way ...