Your chance to co-create an unforgettable gathering of those determined to play our part in the betterment of Vail Valley and catalyze the seemingly impossible into action with AI at the center. So many concepts and new ventures have started in these CMC halls — why not for you? But if you’re not feeling social, no worries. Break away to our dedicated quiet spaces to catch up on work or journal in between sessions or conversations.
Session 1: Mind Xpanding system changers
Felipe Sánchez Luna is creative director and cofounder of sound design think tank Kling Klang Klong, where he uses technology and science to craft immersive sonic experiences for museums, concert halls and other, more unorthodox venues. Through his work, he transforms complex data and concepts into poetic, emotionally resonant soundscapes.
Next up: a rapid 40 year review of TED
Demis Hassabis shows how AI might solve humanity’s “big questions” by identifying patterns in impossibly huge (and humanly incomprehensible) datasets. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Hassabis explores AI from its game-playing, algorithmic roots to the current high-powered arms race.
Spatial intelligence AI wit Fei-Fei Li, a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, an organization that aims to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition. She is also cofounder and chair of AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing the next generation of AI technologists. With experience at Google and X, Li is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her book The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI was published in 2023.
Beyond Our Reality by Don Allen Stevenson III / generated with Sora
Niceaunties: Based in Singapore, artist and designer Niceaunties draws on her architectural background to create the structure and conceptual depth of her dreamlike AI art. The content — including scenes of elderly women with cat-shaped masks crafted from cereal — is inspired by the influential women in her family and the broader "auntie culture" prevalent in Asian communities. Influenced by surrealism, fantasy and kawaii culture, the realm of Niceaunties champions empowerment and self-expression while delving into themes of aging, beauty and personal freedom.
Bari Weiss, a former writer and editor at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Bari now runs The Free Press, an independent media company built on the idea that honesty, doggedness and a sense of fierce independence are central to great journalism. She is the host of the Honestly podcast, which features “stories no one else is telling,” and the author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism. In 2023, Weiss and The Free Press won the Dao Prize, recognizing excellence in investigative journalism.
Intermittent breaks as our conversation swells...
Session 2: Enchanting Trailblazers
Jaime Rojo is a photographer and National Geographic Explorer who specializes in environmental stories about wilderness and wildlife. A strong advocate for conservation, he uses his images as a tool for protecting nature. Most recently, he photographed a feature story for National Geographic magazine about the migration of monarch butterflies. He has received honors in competitions such as the World Press Photo, Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Picture of the Year International.
Share The Lamb, Directed by Aimée-Lee Xu Hsien and Trent O’Donnell
Kylan Gibbs blends AI with gaming and entertainment to help make immersive worlds and experiences — using cutting-edge tech to extend the capacity for human creativity and imagination. Game developers and other creatives use his tools to create AI-powered characters that have depth, realism and “brains.” Previously, Gibbs worked on AI research and generative language models at Google DeepMind.
Meet this year's TED FEllows
Cai Guo-Qiang has worked in a wide range of mediums, including painting, installation art, video art and performance art, but he is probably best known for his works with gunpowder and fireworks. He orchestrated the pyrotechnic "explosion event" Sky Ladder in his hometown of Quanzhou in Fujian, China, in 2015, which became the subject of an eponymous Netflix documentary. Cai has held solo exhibitions in major art museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Prado Museum in Madrid and the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. He served as director of visual effects and fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 and 2022 Beijing Olympics and has won numerous awards including the John D. Rockefeller III Award in 2022. His latest works explore the possibilities of artificial intelligence, including a custom-built multimodal AI model.
Think outside the box...
Andrew Yang Andrew Yang is the cofounder of the Forward Party, a new independent political movement dedicated to restoring the promise of US democracy. A Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, he is the founder of Humanity Forward and Venture for America. His New York Times bestseller The War on Normal People helped introduce the idea of universal basic income into the political mainstream, and his most recent book, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, became a national bestseller. He is also coauthor with Stephen Marche of the political thriller The Last Election.
Jason Rugolo is a deeptech inventor and designer who cares about making the world a radically better place through high-impact technology products. He’s the founder and CEO of iyo, a “secret moonshot startup” developing a natural language computing platform with a screenless user interface that aims to help people become superhuman. Previously, he was a program director at ARPA-E and a GM at Google X.
Atypical Company The Prompt...
Ray Kurzweil With a 35-year track record of accurate predictions about AI and science, Ray has radically advanced the fields of speech, text and audio technology. His impact as a philosopher and author is no less significant, with five bestselling books and the forthcoming The Singularity Is Nearer, which explores how technology will transform humanity in the decades to come. He is a principal researcher and AI visionary at Google, looking at the long-term implications of technology and society.
Catie Cuan is an artist, engineer and award-winning robot choreographer whose work explores the beauty, magic and unintended consequences of giving AI a robot body. In Breathless: Catie and the Robot, a modern retelling of the American workday, she danced with a robot in New York for eight straight hours. Cuan is the CEO of Zenie, a consumer AI startup, an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Exploratorium and a postdoc in computer science at Stanford.
GENERATION By Riccardo Fusetti
Mark Grimmer Mark Grimmer cofounded the multidisciplinary design studio and production company 59 Productions, which mines theater, cinema and multimedia to forge new and unexpected storytelling strategies. Their numerous projects include a David Bowie career retrospective for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a history of Apollo 11 for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC and, most recently, an immersive digital experience with artist David Hockney titled “Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away)” in London and Seoul.
151 Miller Ranch Road
Edwards, Colorado, 81632
United States
- Event type:
- TEDxLive (What is this?)
Organizing team
