TED Talks Daily The army of autonomous robots restoring nature | Tom Chi
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Nov 21, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Tom Chi, an impact investor and former Google/X innovator, challenges the notion that economic growth harms ecological health. He highlights groundbreaking approaches harnessing AI and robotics to restore ecosystems. Tom reveals how drones can plant 100,000 mangroves a day and how advanced recycling can lower mining needs. He emphasizes that with innovative practices like regenerative agriculture and ecological mining, technology can work symbiotically with nature, promoting both industry and environmental restoration.
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Economy Is Part Of Ecology
- The economy is a subset of the ecology, not separate from it.
- Everything the economy produces is literally mined or grown, so ecological harm undermines economic stability.
Mass Extraction Scale
- Humanity currently extracts over 90 billion tons per year, about 11.5 tons per person annually.
- Extraction rates vary widely by region and drive large-scale ecological impact.
Outdated Industrial Tools
- Much of our mining and agricultural tech is decades or centuries old and ripe for reinvention.
- New robotics and AI tools open questions about mining and growing in ecological ways.