Transcriber: Camilo Paez
Reviewer: Emma Gon Now, what would you all say if I told you I could give you back
one hour every single day? Sounds enticing, isn’t it? Well, let me give you
one more perspective. In the past week,
as simple smartphone users, we have saved collectively
approximately 36,000 years. And if you take the last ten years, we probably saved enough time
to go back and see the dinosaurs. This story today is a story
that’s going to go from heart to heart, as my grandma used to say. It is a story that is deeply intertwined
with myself, with each one of you, and with these times of unprecedented
technological advancements. This narrative for me began 11 years ago, when my father
was diagnosed with leukemia. It was a jarring moment
that put a hard brake on my entire life. And amidst his struggle, our struggle, the value of time became evident
to me like never before. With six months to live,
according to the doctors at the time, I saw the face of my lifetime hero change
for the briefest of moments and fall. And there isn’t much to blame, is it? Except, in the span of a heartbeat,
he shook himself up, he looked me in the eyes and told me, “Well, son, time is of the essence.” Days, weeks, months, years passed by I witnessed firsthand the strength of a man determined
to be there for his family and honestly cheered the world around him
with every single moment. Two years ago, I’ve lost my father. Every moment
I spent with him, every laugh, every piece of wisdom
that he shared with me became instantaneous treasures of time. And for me, for me,
they serve as a poignant reminder of the value of every single day. And armed with this energy,
with my memories of my dad and being the ever geek that I am,
If we are honest, I’ve started coming through
some very interesting research. And the one piece that I want
to bring here in front of you today is that of Manchester based mathematician and fellow TED speaker, Katie Steckles. She discovered that the average UK
individual saves every single week, approximately 6.5 hours. That is a staggering
two full weeks every year on tasks such as internet banking,
online food shopping, satellite navigation,
self-service checkouts, and you name them,
because there are a lot of them. From mundane tasks to complex operations, technology has started
to steadily chip away at ours, granting us pockets of time. And the question
that I posed to you today is, what are we doing with all of that time? With the advent of AI now, a thought I very often hear is I am going to become ten times more
productive in my workday and whatever. And it is an enticing thought, isn't it? Supercharged efficiency, being able
to complete tasks at breakneck speeds and just being able to do
more in the same time. But as I started to delve deeper in
this new technological advancement, an audacious thought struck me and I’m sure thousands
of others around the globe. A thought that
we haven’t properly explored ever since the industrial era. What if, just what if, this time, we don’t need to be more productive? What if this time we can actually create
a life that is more meaningful, that with experiences
that we can enjoy more and more? Look, we are all becoming more tired, more stressed, more stretched
every single day. And I know a lot of you here
can feel it, can’t you? Well, you’re not alone. According to a study done
by Asana in 2023, this year, 8 out in 10 Gen Z’s, 7 out in 10 millennials and 5 out in 10 baby boomers
report burnout and signs of burnout. And that is,
those are some numbers that should absolutely scare us. They should absolutely scare us. But on the other side of this, the World Economic Forum
comes and they predict that half of the world tasks by 2025 are going be completed by
either machinery or technology. And that should, in theory,
give us humans the time to enjoy life. To take it step by step and
enjoy every single one of these. We said, as I believe it, at least at the brink of tomorrow,
and we are looking at a Renaissance era, the Renaissance era of technology, as I like to call it, especially now
as we're getting closer and closer and closer to the escape
velocity point of AI. AI is going to reshape the very fabric
of society, whether we like it or not. But with our guidance and translation, it can actually understand
our personalized needs, and it puts us into the driver’s seat of
reforging human experiences over all. Of us, being able to actually do
what and how we want to do, and to be able to be brilliant and
creative at our very own pace. Look, we live in a world
where we constantly navigate change, pressure, stress, conflict. From the unsettling
tremors of geopolitical unrest to a global pandemic,
to day to day tragedies, and all the way to this technology like
reshifting everything that we know, we live in a really restless era. But in my last 12 years,
throughout the tech industry, watching corporations,
start ups, individual and I’m out there
with everything, trust me. I have started to see
a seismic shift, if you will. Previously, we looked at the market,
identified a need or a problem, and we tried to address it. And we have done that
for decades and it worked. But slowly, step by step,
I’ve started to notice a change. We are actually starting
to solve problems and address needs
before they actually appear. And I come here today hopeful that this means humanity as a whole is making an absolutely gorgeous move
from reaction to proaction. And I can give you
some example of that, by the way, in my last company at Adobe, we started building products to address
the needs of day to day users, like being able to build a birthday card
easily for your four year old daughter, or just removing that guy
from the background that just photobombed
your photo, right? And now, as I moved over to sneak, we are building
a complete set of solutions that its purpose is
to remove completely the need for developers around
the world to look at security at all. We're going to be there for them right
before they need it, right? So again, I believe we now sit
at the very brink of tomorrow, a tomorrow that by tapping into
our empathy, into our emotions, by listening to those around us, we can actually build products
that cater to our needs. We are sitting at the beginning
of a Renaissance era. And just like the Italians got
with their Renaissance era, when trade bloomed and they had
a lot of wealth and free time, technology has started
to give us free time, and it is creating wealth
at a dazzling speed, and it will only become faster
and faster and faster Now, this I believe, is our chance
to reconnect ourselves to our core feelings,
to our emotions, to our empathy. I believe in this world
as it sits right now with all this technology that surfaces, this world has everything it needs for us to work towards united front
instead of brewing conflict. A world where we can create
our own works of wonder. We can create our own Leonardo da Vinci,
our own Raphael, our own Michelangelo. Look, these past few years
have not been particularly kind on me. But here I am today
in front of all of you, and I’m reaching out to say, Students, professors, workers,
entrepreneurs, politicians. As we sit at the brink of this new era,
let's tap into our emotions, into our empathy, into our capability
to understand each other. In order to make this a golden one, let’s build products and policies that proactively cater
to human needs and emotions. Let’s set new directions that are actually
harbingers of a better future. A future where technology
not only makes us more efficient, more productive, but it actually makes our life profoundly
meaningful and resonant. I know that this might
just be the dream of a humble man that sits
here in front of you. But if we really look at it, this all
is happening right here around us. From the time you get back to
the beautiful memories with my dad, to technology changing
everything that we know, this moment is here, right now, all we have to do is get out of the couch, break outside the boxes created on us by social media, politics,
television, or whatever, and just seize out
and grab this moment. Look, studies like the one from Asana
paint a very worrying picture. But to all of you out there
who are feeling tired, who are feeling stressed, who are feeling stretched out, please do not forget
what this is really about. Do not forget what this technological
empowerment should really be doing for us. And it really isn’t, I can promise you,
about becoming more efficient. It's not about becoming more productive. It’s not about cramming
more into the same time. What it is about is that friend from
high school that you used to love, but you completely lost contact with. It's about your brother and your sister, and the smile on their faces as you go
and give them their birthday gift. It’s about your partners,
it’s about your parents and the pride that they feel toward you. But it can also be as simple
as about the book you read, and it gives you peace and quiet, or the moments that you play with
your dog or take a walk in the park. Look in this world that is constantly
chasing us for efficiency, in this world that would rather
see me become more productive than actually spend
that invaluable time with my dad. What are you going to do to make
this life of ours, your life, our lives, more profound, more meaningful? I cannot wait to see it. Thank you. (Applause)