Science & Technology

How Satellites and AI Can Protect the Planet | Robbie Schingler | TED

Space technologist Robbie Schingler cofounded a satellite company that images the whole planet every day, making visible changes on Earth. He shows how pairing that data with AI creates a “planetary intelligence” we can use to spot emerging threats we might not have seen otherwise. Now he asks: Can we close the gap between seeing…

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Space technologist Robbie Schingler cofounded a satellite company that images the whole planet every day, making visible changes on Earth. He shows how pairing that data with AI creates a “planetary intelligence” we can use to spot emerging threats we might not have seen otherwise. Now he asks: Can we close the gap between seeing a crisis coming and actually stopping it? (Followed by a note from TED guest curators Divya Siddarth and Audrey Tang) (Recorded at TED2026 on April 14, 2026)

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36 Comments

  1. @Indie_Pixels

    August 20, 2026 at 11:07 am

    How fires can save trees

  2. @AdvantestInc

    August 20, 2026 at 11:08 am

    The detail worth dwelling on is the gap between detection and response, because better sensors keep sharpening the warning while acting on it stays a stubbornly human problem.

    • @oooooooo347

      August 21, 2026 at 1:39 pm

      If you search “firefighting drones,” you’ll see there have been pilot schemes recently in California. And presumably, catching things earlier means that this fire could be on a smaller scale, so a lot easier to deal with, with smaller drones that don’t carry as much liquid as, say, a firefighting plane (which has to do the whole loading up from local lakes, etc., and must be very costly to run).

  3. @금금-s9p

    August 20, 2026 at 11:10 am

    Thank you for the good information.

    • @RusticRaver

      August 20, 2026 at 12:00 pm

      you dont think that is AI lobby speaking? all these data centres killing the planet and this guy just turns up to say AI is good for planet, sounds like bullshat to me, Ted talks are famous for this kind of green washing. After all all these missiles are piloted with help of satellites, very detrimental to environment.

  4. @thierryvankerm8474

    August 20, 2026 at 11:24 am

    But, AI will have destroyed the planet and humanity before. Don’t bother…

    • @rikachiu

      August 20, 2026 at 12:30 pm

      Humans using AI maliciously is what will kill the planet and the rest of us. AI is just a tool that have cured cancers and solved incredibly difficult problems that you likely didn’t even bother looking up.

    • @PhilosophicAI

      August 20, 2026 at 1:17 pm

      Not with that attitude. We will destroy the planet with negativity before AI has a chance to develop enough to help or hurt.

    • @oooooooo347

      August 20, 2026 at 3:20 pm

      I went on another browser just to read the comments for this video because normally I have comments completely blocked. Lo and behold, this is the sort of lazy negative thinking that is very popular now relating to anything to do with technology or AI. Change is coming. It can’t be stopped, but it can be steered, and it could be steered by people trying to think: what if things go right? What’s the positive vision of the future that’s worth campaigning for?

    • @romantwai9674

      August 20, 2026 at 3:35 pm

      ​@rikachiunope. AI is by nature untrustworthy and is a black hole that drain all energy. Each time AI is used, there us a better tool that use less energy and that produce better results. AI is pure madness and deeply, is just a way for cloud computing industry to survive by draining economy.

    • @rikachiu

      August 20, 2026 at 3:44 pm

      @romantwai9674 You clearly do not use AI on my level then.

  5. @IrfanShaikhVlogs10

    August 20, 2026 at 11:35 am

    Good

  6. @bren1210

    August 20, 2026 at 11:40 am

    @6:26 please save the illicit crops. Nothing is illicit in nature

    • @rikachiu

      August 20, 2026 at 12:27 pm

      Sure nothing is “illicit” however don’t ignore that nature also tries to kill you at every turn and why regulation is important.

  7. @soulplumber1506

    August 20, 2026 at 12:10 pm

    I’m still waiting for non-photoshopped / non-CGI images of these ‘satellites in orbit’. None exist.

    • @rikachiu

      August 20, 2026 at 12:29 pm

      Plenty of photos taken by astronauts on Artemis II using their iphones you can easily look up.

  8. @ayubaidakwo5103

    August 20, 2026 at 12:33 pm

    Why are you focused on war. Teach us something else.

    • @К.Марго

      August 22, 2026 at 10:37 am

      Потому что гонорар выступающего удваивается каждый раз, когда он произносит фразу Russian invention. Приходится хоть как-то притягивать хайп к теме выступления.

  9. @bengodfrey6954

    August 20, 2026 at 1:04 pm

    how AI can hallucinate a crisis

    • @romantwai9674

      August 20, 2026 at 3:42 pm

      Each AI production is hallucination. It’s due to nature of generative AI. It corrupts training datas, creates false relations, and generates absurdities. And incompetent people believe in AI like a in a divinity, a demon, a djiin… because it It magical for them.

    • @real_evin

      August 21, 2026 at 11:53 am

      ​@romantwai9674 Generative AI being the key word, for anyone confused. Important to use the right words here. AI as a concept is incredibly different to what we see with ChatGPT and Gemini etc. The AI that’s becoming so mainstream and causing discourse is Generative AI

  10. @RuneVeil

    August 20, 2026 at 1:32 pm

    The opposite of good.

  11. @user-kq2tc5hy5g

    August 20, 2026 at 3:06 pm

    10:48 skynet?

  12. @romantwai9674

    August 20, 2026 at 3:28 pm

    Cloud LLM, aka AI, is a serious disease that injury deeply the environment and economy. And due to its statistical nature every AI production are untrustworthy. Using AI to predict and manage crisis is pure madness. In 1972 MIT designed a predictive model named earth 3, it was not AI, it was used by the Meadows team to predict the disaster of economic model. It was right. Read the book “The Limit to growth” and shutdown AI.

  13. @Jasonxbr

    August 20, 2026 at 4:30 pm

    Not unless the machines turn evil with Makaveli Triad personified 😢😢😢😢😢😢 humanity is doomed 😢😢😢😢😢

  14. @stitman

    August 20, 2026 at 4:35 pm

    Great Talk Mr. Shingler I recall learning about your company about 5 years ago.

    Keep IT up 😊

  15. @HispanoScot

    August 20, 2026 at 7:05 pm

    “Then the kings of the earth, the great ones, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” Revelation 6:15

  16. @flamevix

    August 20, 2026 at 7:52 pm

    No.

  17. @Boomerangbone

    August 20, 2026 at 8:53 pm

    How can Ted sleep at night knowing he still has the disgusting lecture from Sue the mother of one of the Columbine killers AND the audacity to turn the comments off

  18. @GRich-d2e

    August 21, 2026 at 7:21 pm

    “True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. It can’t be gained by interfering.” -Lao Tzu. Let’s dispense with the hypercontrolling technoscientific Dead End enterprise we’ve inherited from Francis Bacon. Also, stop generating a prison out of space trash. I want to see the stars with my 100% organic eyes.

  19. @urbanstrencan

    August 22, 2026 at 2:50 pm

    With all the damage that AI is doing to environment, it’s just about time at least some is used to help save the world

  20. @melissaklemm9976

    August 22, 2026 at 5:11 pm

    Yes they shall protect the earth 🌎

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