TED Talks Daily - "The Unprompted," a poem that AI will never understand | Salome Agbaroji

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

What happens when a poet talks back to AI? In an electrifying performance, Salome Agbaroji performs her original spoken-word poem, "The Unprompted," weaving a powerful reflection on humanity, technology and what no machine can match.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is sponsored by Airbnb. A few years ago, I went to Vancouver for work, and I remember sneaking in a little time to wander Granville Island and grab something from the public market. It reminded me how much I love discovering new corners of Canada with Airbnb. Because let's be honest, when you're traveling with kids, sometimes you just need a kitchen at 6 a.m. That's one of the things I love about Airbnb.

You actually get to settle in. We can have breakfast together around a table, put the kids to bed in real bedrooms, and still stay up with my partner after. That's the kind of setup that makes trips in Canada so much more fun. You're not just getting a place to sleep, you're getting experiences that feel authentically yours, whether it's a lakeside cabin in Bruce Peninsula

where you can literally roll out of bed and into a canoe or a cozy spot in Cape Breton where you can make your morning coffee and watch the sunrise without anyone rushing you to check out. This summer, when you're planning those trips that matter, the ones where you want to actually connect with your loved ones, check out some of the most loved homes across Canada on Airbnb. This episode is brought to you by the Leading Into Tomorrow podcast from EY.

We talk a lot on this show about ideas that shape our world. But what about the people shaping the future of public service? In Leading Into Tomorrow, EY brings you discussions with government and public sector leaders who are navigating complex challenges and transforming their organizations to serve citizens better. From managing an evolving risk landscape to exploring how AI is reshaping government, these leaders aren't just talking innovation. They're living it, and the conversations go deep, not just the what, but the how. Whether you work in government, care about public services, or are curious about what leadership

looks like in an era of rapid change, this series offers inspiring insights you won't want to miss. Leading into tomorrow is out now. Download today from wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored by Colgate Periogard. Most of us keep our homes stocked with first aid supplies for cuts and scrapes, bandages, ointments, the works. But when our gums bleed or feel inflamed, we tend to brush it off, literally. The thing is, those could be early signs of gum disease, and like the rest of our health, our gums deserve attention to.

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where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. As we fall deeper and deeper into the black box, is hoping for humanity the most human thing we can do? That's a question from poet Salomi Agbarugi. In her moving and at times funny performance, she asks us to take a deep and honest look

at why the rush towards celebrating artificial intelligence is dangerous and how looking to technological innovation to improve our lives often misses the point entirely. I fill my empty 3 a.m.s with spineless phone scrolls, text abbreviations, and unihuman conversations. AI chatbots answer all my aimless interrogations, like, how do I answer an email that does not find me well? Or, oh my gosh, my crush just texted me, what do I say? Or, is it true? what the headlines say

that the world is crumbling beneath our feet and we do nothing but crumble with it our glassened eyes lost in the latent space calculating our extinction with every pulse of our carbon-based circuitry and as we fall deeper and deeper into the black box is hoping for humanity the most human thing we can do And the AI says back to me, I don't know.

More specifically, hmm, I'm not sure how to process your request. Please try a new prompt. I say to AI, don't feel too special. You aren't the first artificial system we humans carelessly labeled intelligent. Global capitalism was genius until it became negligent, leaving the unfortunate to suffer without the means for life. Biased science elevated one people over the last, but with differentiation came racism and caste,

littering our world with non-compostable isms. I say to its text and images, you're brilliant, but you aren't the first generation to forge something out of seemingly nothing. Haven't you seen my generation? the DIYers and binary defiers, we too extract wisdom from the earth's mouth like a flower or a landmine. Sure, drive our cars, but never our movements, never our blood and boneed passions. You can't replace the place of the people I say to the people.

the displaced children without homes do not cry mechanical tears about a simulated hunger induced by virtual war the viruses they suffer from are not the zeros and ones in your devices cured by simple software reset if only the world had such a button we've got our heads so far up in the cloud, we forget that the ground exists. New prompt, is this modernity marveling at machines that can read and write when currently 700 million adults are illiterate? New prompt. Is this innovation chipped by click workers in dark, dank rooms without proper compensation? The future we fear is not the sci-fi. cyborg AI uprising that sets the world aflame. No, the true dystopia is the today we make.

When humans watch the world burn, still with the power to save it and don't. The work towards a better world is not automated. No computer could take this job of audacious hope, of unfounded optimism, we are the unprompted. In the face of the bleakest calculations, we aspire in a way no algorithm could advise. And that is what will save us from the abyss. Solely, we are our saviors, but just as every hero has their gadgets,

technology can be the engine of our altruism. every invention is just an extension of your hand so in the same way that a hammer can both build and destroy you tell me how will you wield your tools again i say to people remember people be unprompted but with a promise to let my most pressing 3 a.m. question not be whether or not I'll have a world to wake up to. But how these new things can finally find us well. Thank you. guidelines. And that's it for today. Ted Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonicaa Sung Marnivong.

This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisie Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balareso. I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by Airbnb. A few years ago, I went to Vancouver for work, and I remember sneaking in a little time to wander Granville Island and grab something from the public market. It reminded me how much I love discovering new corners of Canada with Airbnb, because let's be honest, when you're traveling with kids, sometimes you just need a kitchen at 6 a.m. That's one of the things I love about Airbnb. You actually get to settle in.

We can have breakfast together around a table, put the kids to bed in real bedrooms, and still stay up with my partner after. That's the kind of setup that makes trips in Canada so much more fun. You're not just getting a place to sleep, you're getting experiences that feel authentically yours, whether it's a lakeside cabin in Bruce Peninsula where you can literally roll out of bed and into a canoe or a cozy spot in Cape Breton where you can make your morning coffee and watch the sunrise without anyone rushing you to check out. This summer, when you're planning those trips that matter, the ones where you want to actually connect with your loved ones, check out some of the most loved homes across Canada on Airbnb.

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