To you, our present and future sons ...

For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning -- building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it ...

Keep the brain sharp and engaged with these talks that make it fun to avoid the "summer slump."

2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra is an educator who helps kids learn to teach themselves. Here are 5 talks that align with his vision of education's future.

Chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam knows that great educational media can be nothing short of explosive. Strap on your goggles and watch his top picks.

Linda Zhang says she knows how to get students excited about learning: Wrap their lessons in real-world problems they want to solve.

What is AI, really? Jeff Dean, the head of Google's AI efforts, explains the underlying technology that enables artificial intelligence to do all sorts of things, from understanding language to diagnosing disease -- and presents a roadmap for building better, more responsible systems that have a deeper understanding of the world. (Followed by a ...

For a genuine conversation, consider talking to a robot; the less humanized, the better. Consumer researcher Anne Scherer shares her findings on why some machines get us to open up better than actual people, revealing fascinating insights about human nature that could lead to more honest interactions in our day-to-day lives.

On the TED@BCG stage, AI pathfinder Philipp Gerbert dispels the myth of AI as a complex and mysterious tool for business. In reality, he says, even those of us outside Silicon Valley can have an intimate understanding of AI and put it to work today. Gerbert walks us through the ABC's of AI and what it can mean for your organization.

Diana Laufenberg shares three surprising things she has learned about teaching -- including a key insight about learning from mistakes.

National Geographic Learning’s goal is to bring the world to the classroom, and the classroom to life for English language learners at all levels. With National Geographic Learning programs with TED Talks, students learn their world by experiencing it through the stories, ideas, photography and video of National Geographic and TED. TED Speaker ...

Wofford College president Bernie Dunlap tells the story of Sandor Teszler, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who taught him about passionate living and lifelong learning.

Confirmation bias, loss aversion, the halo effect – inherently, humans face obstacles when making rational decisions. In the future, could purely logical cognitive computers help erase these blind spots? Dario Gil explores what the future of cognitive computers looks like and considers the uneasy question: could technology ever replace humans?

Animals are communicating -- but what are they saying? And can we talk back? Marine biologist David Gruber introduces Project CETI: a team of scientists, linguists and AI specialists hoping to decode sperm whale language. Using noninvasive robots and a machine-learning algorithm to collect and analyze millions of sperm whale vocalizations known ...

AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It i...

Computers can beat us in board games, transcribe speech, and instantly identify almost any object. But will future robots go further by learning to figure out what we're feeling? Kostas Karpouzis imagines a future where machines and the people who run them can accurately read our emotional states — and explains how that could allow them to assis...

What if building intelligent systems and innovations was as easy as drawing connections on a computer screen? Joachim Horn has made this possible. SAM Labs' K-12 STEM, STEAM and learn to code courses put the brainpower and experience of engineers in the hands of anyone. SAM Labs enables students with imagination to go from idea to prototype almo...

Despite her best efforts, comedian Julia Sweeney is forced to tell a little white lie when her 8-year-old begins learning about frog reproduction -- and starts to ask some very smart questions.

The path to skill around the globe has been the same for thousands of years: train under an expert and take on small, easy tasks before progressing to riskier, harder ones. But right now, we're handling AI in a way that blocks that path -- and sacrificing learning in our quest for productivity, says organizational ethnographer Matt Beane. What c...

Today Paula Stone Williams is a pastoral counselor and woman — but for the first 60 years of her life, Williams identified as male. After coming out as transgender in December 2012, Williams was swiftly fired from a position as an evangelical Christian leader. In this talk, she reflects about the male privilege she once had and how she's being t...

What's more fun than a barrel of monkeys? These talks, which offer unique insights on the things we play with—from teddy bears to Legos to yo-yos.

Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds -- within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being. And then, says Nick Bostrom, it will overtake us: "Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make." A philosopher and technologist, Bostrom asks us to think...

Here's a paradox: as companies try to streamline their businesses by using artificial intelligence to make critical decisions, they may inadvertently make themselves less efficient. Business technologist Sylvain Duranton advocates for a "Human plus AI" approach -- using AI systems alongside humans, not instead of them -- and shares the specific ...

Early education is critical to children's success -- but millions of kids in the United States still don't have access to programs that prepare them to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. Enter the UPSTART Project, a plan to bring early learning into the homes of children in underserved communities, at no cost to families. Education innovator Cla...

Self-driving cars were just the start. What's the future of big data-driven technology and design? In a thrilling science talk, Kenneth Cukier looks at what's next for machine learning -- and human knowledge.

In this talk, musician and educator Anita Collins makes a passionate case for music education as an indispensable part of school curricula, describing how learning to play music is the neurological equivalent of a full-body workout.

An advocate for women's health, Barbra Streisand founded the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center -- whose director is TEDxWomen star Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz. Together they pick some great talks for women and, really, anyone.

Our talks featuring sharks -- arguably one of the more misunderstood creatures of the deep blue sea.

You spend a quarter of your life at work. You should enjoy it! Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the minds of some of the world's most unusual professionals to discover the keys to better work life. From learning how to love your rivals to harnessing the power of frustration, one thing's for sure: You'll never see your job ...

Discover the beauty in minimizing material goods, repurposing your most well-loved things and intentionally (and sustainably) lessening your carbon footprint.