2,205,822 views | Roy Bahat and Bryn Freedman • TED Salon: Zebra Technologies
How do we find dignity at work?
Roy Bahat was worried. His company invests in new technology like AI to make businesses more efficient -- but, he wondered, what was AI doing to the people whose jobs might change, go away or become less fulfilling? The question sent him on a two-year research odyssey to discover what motivates people, and why we work. In this conversation with curator Bryn Freedman, he shares what he learned, including some surprising insights that will shape the conversation about the future of our jobs.
This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Zebra Technologies. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TED Salons.Roy Bahat was worried. His company invests in new technology like AI to make businesses more efficient -- but, he wondered, what was AI doing to the people whose jobs might change, go away or become less fulfilling? The question sent him on a two-year research odyssey to discover what motivates people, and why we work. In this conversation with curator Bryn Freedman, he shares what he learned, including some surprising insights that will shape the conversation about the future of our jobs.
This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Zebra Technologies. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TED Salons.About the speakers
Roy Bahat invests in the future of work, with a focus on automation, data, robotics, media, productivity tools and more.
Bryn Freedman helps those who want to give the "talk of their lives" in a clear, passionate and authentic way.
Clifford Nass, Corina Yen | Current, 2012 | Book
The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What We Can Learn About Ourselves from Our Machines
In the supposed "struggle" between people and machines, it turns out we people often treat computers like we do other people! We empathize with them, yell at them, grow attached. Nass, who passed away a few years ago, helps us accept this insight and see our relationships with each other anew.
Emily Chang | Portfolio, 2019 | Book
Brotopia: Breaking up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley
How can we make work dignified if each human being enters on different footing? Despite all its emphasis on metrics and therefore meritocracy, Silicon Valley is awful at treating contributions from anyone as equally valid. Instead of (merely) offering suggestions for what to do, Emily explains how this arose in the first place.
Ajay Agrawal, Avi Goldfarb and Joshua Gans | Harvard Business Review Press, 2018 | Book
Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
What does artificial intelligence actually do better than humans, and therefore take away from our role in the economy? One answer: prediction. Machines can be (under certain conditions) so much better at anticipating the odds than we are. Our ability to know what may come to pass, which we often frame as "human judgment," might just be something we need to cede to the computers in the name of finding what makes us, truly, human. We are more than our ability to predict!
Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn | Wiley, 2018 | Book
The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition
Unfair systems make for unfair experiences for people working within them — and this book lists off the many reasons why too much corporate control of the economy, by too few corporations, has diminished the inherent fairness of a competitive economy.
George Packer | Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014 | Book
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
One of inequality's most searing pains is that it weakens our capacity to understand people who differ from us. Stories strengthen that muscle, and this book tells them, weaving a few yarns of a troubling America.
Srdja Popovic and Matthew Miller | Spiegel & Grau, 2015 | Book
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World
If you have a change you want to provoke — at your workplace, in your country — this guide gives practical tips on putting common sense, funnies and heart to work for you. And not all those changes must be revolutions, even if sometimes that's exactly the blueprint that's required.
About TED Salon
TED Salons welcome an intimate audience for an afternoon or evening of highly-curated TED Talks revolving around a globally relevant theme. A condensed version of a TED flagship conference, they are distinct in their brevity, opportunities for conversation, and heightened interaction between the speaker and audience.