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- [00:07]
Elise Hu
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. For me, comedy is a necessary lens through which to look at the issues we're facing in the world. It's a place to laugh and sometimes cry. Laugh. In this hilarious and searing set from comedian and screenwriter Jenna Friedman, she asks us to consider the things that separate us from machines and wonders. Will we continue to get replaced by AI? Will we be replaced by robots? But maybe not the standup comics. I don't want to give too much away, so I'm just going to leave it there. And a heads up that today's talk contains mature content that may not be suitable for all audiences. This episode is sponsored by Dell introducing the new Dell AI PC. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor. It's not just an AI computer. It's a computer built for AI. That means it's built to help do your busy work for you. So you can fast forward through editing images, designing presentations, generating code, debugging code, running lots of apps without lag, creating live translations and captions, summarizing meeting notes, extending battery life, enhancing security, finding that file you are looking for, managing your schedule, meeting your deadlines, responding to Jim's long emails, leaving all the time in the world for more you time and for the things you actually want to do. No offense, Jim. Get a new Dell AI PC starting at $699.99 at Dell.com AI PC how those ahead? Stay ahead. This episode is sponsored by McDonald's. Okay, confession time. I love a good comeback story, especially when it's delicious and totally unexpected. Back in 2006, McDonald's released the snack Wrap and it quickly became the Go to bite portable, crunchy, juicy perfection. Then it vanished. Gone. Poof. But the fans like me, oh, they never gave up. I'm talking nine years of petitions, Facebook groups, memes, international snack wrap scouting missions. People built entire identities around this thing. It was intense in the best way. And now it's back. Yes, really. Thanks to relentless sauce loving dedication, McDonald's brought back the snack wrap. Think crispy, juicy white meat, shredded lettuce, melty cheese, all hugged in a soft tortilla and drizzled with ranch or your pick of sauces. It was never supposed to return, but the fans made it happen. Because sometimes passion wins. And sometimes it tastes like a snack wrap. Try the snack wrap that broke the Internet at a McDonald's near you. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Each Apple product like the iPhone 16 is thoughtfully designed by skilled designers. The Titanium Apple Card is no different. It's laser etched, has no numbers, and it earns you daily cash on everything you buy, including 3% back on everything at Apple. Apply for Apple Card on your iPhone in minutes, subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com.
- [03:19]
Jenna Friedman
Artificial intelligence is really changing my industry. That's partly what last year's writers strike was about. Putting limits on the use of AI as it pertains to TV and film. And if there's anyone in here under 25, TV and film are like TikTok, but you get paid for it. Thankfully, we won that strike. Yes, our win was as effective at protecting the careers of human writers from AI as pouring water on a laptop. The future for television writers is so bleak, it has inspired me to get back into stand up, which is why I'm here at ted. I have been told before that some of my stand up comedy is like a TED Talk from mean people on the Internet. But at least they didn't call me fat. Being a woman online is fun. A lot of my friends are really afraid of artificial intelligence right now. Sorry. A lot of my male friends are really afraid of AI. My female friends have other more frivolous concerns like getting home safely. But my male friends are so scared of robots and I get it. I've seen Ex Machina. If you haven't seen it, Ex Machina is a dystopian sci fi horror movie about a sentient robot who has to flirt with her captor to escape her prison, which is pretty much every woman's first job. How is it a horror movie? I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the director pitched it. Was he just like, picture your worst nightmare. Your sex robot becomes conscious and then decides she doesn't want to have sex with you. And all the men in the room are like, oh, the horror. No, that can happen. Take my money. We have to make sure that doesn't happen. That's how movies get made in Hollywood. So maybe AI won't be so bad for my industry. Regardless, you should feel lucky to see a person up here because in five years it will be a robot. You're saying two Cool. In two years it'll be a robot and you'll all be laughing at him. Yes, it'll be a male robot. Our female robot's funny. Not in two years they're going to need another 10 Batmail robot. He'll be so funny to you. You'll be like, oh my God, he really gets me. Yeah, he does, because he's data mining you. You might not like all of my content, but it's because I'm protecting your privacy. I'm not listening to your conversations when your phone is on airplane mode. I'm not trying to sell you stuff when you're at your most vulnerable. But that robot comic will be. And you won't even care because that's how parasocial relationships with celebrities work these days. Even when they're robots. He could get away with anything. That robot comic could be in a green room pulling out his plug in front of non consenting women and you'd be like, wow, that's so lifelike. Here's a Grammy. Thanks. I censored that last bit so that you'll share this link with your kids. The theme of TED 2025 is humanity reimagined. Which sounds like a euphemism ChatGPT came up with for all of us being replaced by Mach. I'm not a techno pessimist. I'm just a person with a human brain. And I'm a little scared by how quickly AI is progressing. But Jenna, think of all the great things AI will do for humanity. It could lower carbon emissions by killing all the humans. Is that a joke? I don't know. I don't know. Some of the people in this room would know better than I do. Are the robots going to kill us? If you work in this space and you can't answer that with a definitive no, then maybe we should slow it down a notch. Take a few weeks off like a fired and then rehired federal employee under Doge. Either way, I'm not that worried about my standup comedy being replaced by AI because my stand up comedy is not that profitable. Case in point, I've been doing this for over 15 years and none of you know who I am. No machines are coming for my abortion jokes. And believe me, I've tried. Okay, so here's a conversation I had with ChatGPT. It's very brief. Don't worry, it only melted one iceberg. I say hi, chatgpt, exclamation point. You gotta be nice to them because they're gonna kill us. Can you write me an abortion joke? I aim to keep things light hearted and respectful. Blah, blah, blah. So no. Cool. I get that you are asking for something specific. It's fine. I'll just ask Deepseek. And if anyone's curious, Deepseek will totally write you an abortion joke, but only if it's a girl. As some of you may have gathered, I do have a lot of abortion jokes. The best thing about abortion jokes is that no one tries to steal them. They are like the unwanted children of jokes. In a sense, it's the abortion jokes that make us human. Metaphorically speaking, they don't even have to be jokes. They could just be our idiosyncrasies, our peccadilloes and other sat words. Our raw, authentic, unfiltered selves that might not always be likable, relatable, or profitable. Those are the things that separate us from machines. For now. When all of our TED talks get fed into machine learning algorithms, robots may evolve to understand why someone might say the word abortion in a talk, despite the fact that it could alienate 50% of people watching, even though it shouldn't because it's just health care. But until they do, these are the things we should be embracing and cultivating as artificial intelligence evolves to get better at everything. It might just be our abortion jokes. Again, I'm just speaking metaphorically. It's a weird metaphor, but it's uniquely mine. It might just be our metaphorical abortion jokes that are all we have left. That said, in the near future, nobody in America will know what the word abortion means because it'll be outlawed in all 50 states. I'm sorry, 51 states. I forgot to include Canada. Canada. I've now turned this TED Talk into a walking example of why TED is probably going to book a robot comedian instead of a human one as soon as they possibly can. Thank you so much. I'm Jenna Friedman. Have a good night.
- [11:35]
Elise Hu
That was Jenna Friedman speaking at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more@ted.com curationguidelines and that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar and Tonsika Sarmarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balaurazo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.
- [12:22]
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- [12:52]
Paige
This is Paige, the co host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's like why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over I have to order champagne. I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just Uber Eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber Eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Uber Eats. You can get grocery alcohol everyday Essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now for alcohol. You must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
- [13:53]
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