Sal Khan
Founder and CEO of Khan Academy, the nonprofit education platform focused on free, world-class learning; he is also a prominent voice on AI in education through Khan Academy’s Khanmigo work.
Childhood Technology Should Face a Safety Burden Before Mass Adoption
In a 2026 TED talk, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that childhood technology should be governed by “technoskepticism”: companies should have to prove their products are safe for developing minds before they enter children’s social lives, classrooms, or relationships. Drawing on his view of humans as an “ultrasocial” species, Haidt says smartphones, school devices, and AI companions threaten the embodied attention and dependence through which children learn, bond, and mature.
Waymo Frames Driverless Cars as a Safety Imperative, Not a Novelty
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana tells TED’s Sal Khan that the case for fully autonomous vehicles is no longer mainly about whether the technology can drive, but whether cities and regulators will allow it to scale. Her argument is that Waymo’s safety data should be judged against the existing human-driving system, which she says society has grown too willing to accept despite tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year and far more globally.