Why AI shouldn’t decide our future | Maks Giordano | TEDxBerlin

Maks Giordano, a digital creative strategist with more than 30 years in innovation, asks whether AI should decide the future. Drawing on a 1966 "documentary about the future," Keith Jarrett's broken piano, the birth of punk and the history of human discovery, he argues that the key human task is deciding what is worth pursuing. The talk was given at TEDxBerlin, an independently organized TEDx event.

• Why machines excel at optimization but cannot choose what is worth pursuing
• Examples include a 1966 future documentary, Keith Jarrett's broken piano and the birth of punk
• Speed versus purpose in a fast-moving world
• Human taste, intuition and wandering in an AI era

For thirty years, Maks Giordano helped companies find faster, smarter, creative paths into the future. Then AI arrived and raised a question he could not ignore: when machines become extraordinary at optimization, what remains uniquely human? Drawing on a forgotten 1966 “documentary about the future,” Keith Jarrett’s broken piano, the birth of punk, and the strange history of human discovery, Maks explores the one thing no machine can do for us: decide what is worth pursuing in the first place. In a world obsessed with speed, this talk asks a different question: What deserves the speed? Maks Giordano is a digital creative strategist and innovation specialist with more than 30 years of experience leading innovation projects for iconic brands. He works at the intersection of exponential technologies and practical innovation, recognised both for his thinking on generative AI and for the hands-on work of applying it to transform industries and business models. He has served as a management board member and Head of Innovation at ProSiebenSat.1, co-founded iconmobile (Exit to WPP) and Nunatak, and led the digital unit at MetaDesign. He also ran kyte's European operations, working with clients including Lady Gaga. Nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, Maks is known for identifying the technologies that will matter and reading their impact across very different industries. He published two books, teaches Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship as an associate professor and holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen. His current work, including a new book on "Innovation Alchemy" (Harriman House, 2027), examines what keeps people relevant as machines grow more capable: the human wandering, taste, and intuition that do not transfer easily to a model. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx