Demis Hassabis is one of tech's most brilliant minds. A chess-playing child prodigy turned researcher and founder of headline-making AI company DeepMind, Demis is thinking through some of the most revolutionary—and in some cases controversial—uses of artificial intelligence. From ​​the development of computer program AlphaGo, which beat out world champions in the board game Go, to making leaps in the research of how proteins fold, Demis is at the helm of the next generation of groundbreaking technology. In this episode, he gives a peek into some of the questions that his top-level projects are asking, talks about how gaming, creativity, and intelligence inform his approach to tech, and muses on where AI is headed next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jennifer Egan is a journalist and writer whose novel “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won both the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Using a unique format—including a whole chapter told through Powerpoint—Egan nimbly explores the mystery and complexity of human life in the digital age. Her newest book, “The Candy House,” poses similar questions around technology, memory, and authenticity. In this episode, the author talks candidly about her creative process, considers the role of the novelist in an increasingly tech-driven world, and makes an argument for why the long-lasting art of fiction has the power to shift and even alter our consciousness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest chess players of all time. He was one of the youngest world champions ever, and had a 20-year streak as the world’s top-rated player. But even though he is known as a champion, he is also particularly famous for losing—against Deep Blue. After the IBM computer beat Kasparov, the Azerbaijan native spent much of his career thinking about games, computers, artificial intelligence, and how to beat our fears regarding technology. Now he’s turned his attention to finding a fear-fighting strategy with far higher stakes: the preservation of freedom and democracy. Kasparov has become one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics in recent years. Earlier this year, he opened the TED conference with a stirring call to action in support of Ukraine. In this episode, he looks back on his outstanding career, his advocacy and political activism, and shares his latest thinking on the Ukraine war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The way Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist, sees it, Harriet Tubman is the Great American Astronomer. Using the North Star, with no formal training, Harriet Tubman led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom. Chanda is a night sky expert, too. She’s studying the intersections of astrophysics, particle physics, and cosmology, and she’s a leading thinker in understanding dark matter—the invisible particles some postulate could account for most of the matter in the universe. In this episode, Chanda shares how she uses science and the stars not just to uncover how amazing our universe is, but to understand and celebrate humanity’s shared histories—and struggles. Chanda’s latest book, “The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred” is out now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal ran a social simulation game in 2008 that had players dealing with the effects of a respiratory pandemic set to happen in the next decade. She wasn’t literally predicting the 2020 pandemic—but she got eerily close. Her game, set in 2019, featured scenarios we're now familiar with (like masking and social distancing), and participant reactions gave her a sense of what the world could—and eventually, did—look like. How did she do it? And what can we learn from this experiment to predict—and prepare for—the future ourselves? In this episode, Jane teaches us how to be futurists, and talks about the role of imagination—and gaming—in shaping a future that we’re truly excited about. Jane’s new book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything―Even Things That Seem Impossible Today is available now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s official, the TED Interview has a new host! In Chris’s last episode as head of the show, he interviews his successor, bestselling science and technology author Steven Johnson. Two self-described intellectual soulmates, Chris and Steven take a deep dive in discussing where ideas come from, how optimism benefits creative ideation, the complex and even controversial process of discovery, and the beauty of what they call the “adjacent possible.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The way that our brain perceives the world is profoundly informed by our senses–so what would happen if we could heighten them—or even create a whole NEW sense? In one of his last episodes as host of the show, Chris Anderson kicks off our series on the future of intelligence by interviewing neuroscientist and author David Eagleman. They’ll decode the mysteries of the brain, consider consciousness and what it means to be human, and dig deep into David’s ground-breaking research on how wearable technology can bypass sensory impairment, translating sound into patterns of vibration for the deaf and hard of hearing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What will it take to build a future worth being excited about? Elon Musk believes we already have the tools that will help us create one, but we must take bold action to get there. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Musk details how the radical new innovations he’s working on—Tesla’s intelligent humanoid robot Optimus, SpaceX’s otherworldly Starship and Neuralink’s brain-machine interfaces—could help maximize the lifespan of humanity and create a world where goods and services are abundant and accessible for all.This episode was recorded on April 6, 2022. To talk about recent developments including his bid to buy Twitter, Elon joined Chris on stage at TED 2022 on April 14. You can listen to that interview now by following TED Talks Daily wherever you’re listening to this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an ever expanding world, it can be easy to think of our lives as insignificant. But according to David Deutsch, we all possess one skill that gives each of us infinite reach: our ability to attain knowledge. In the final episode of this season dedicated to making a case for optimism, Chris revisits his interview with the father of quantum computing to explore how knowledge first developed, how it sets us apart and how we can use it to shape a more hopeful future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Biochemist Jennifer Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering CRISPR, a revolutionary biotech tool that can edit DNA with unprecedented precision and ease. But how exactly does CRISPR work, and what consequences may arise from altering our internal makeup? She talks to Chris about the remarkable effects CRISPR can have on our lives--from eradicating genetic diseases to slowing the climate crisis--as well as the ethical and moral questions we must grapple with when it comes to changing who we are.Can’t get enough TED? Become a member for access to exclusive events, global conversations, and more. Join now: go.ted.com/podmembers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.