There’s a common African proverb: “When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers.” Policy researcher Nanjira Sambuli says we must apply this thinking to today’s AI evolution, asking: When tech giants battle for dominance, who gets trampled in the process? She introduces a new ethical compass for AI, showing how people across the continent are charting a different path for the future of tech. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 9, 2025)
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@Hobby_trails_repository
March 4, 2026 at 11:07 am
I don’t need any ancestral intelligence anywhere, why should AI need it?
@inhaleacetone
March 4, 2026 at 11:11 am
Its not about you
@dh12.
March 4, 2026 at 11:43 am
@inhaleacetoneand it’s not about you either
@WildEliteGamer
March 4, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Whether you conscious to it or not, you always have ancestral intelligence with you. We all have good, true and beautiful ancestors that help us through our day to day life.
@CoryTyler
March 4, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Sad to hear that. For me, knowing what came before me can help guide where I go.
@Corcontv
March 4, 2026 at 12:18 pm
AI doesn’t need it, also they hid the dislikes again…….:(
@onyekanwokike4589
March 4, 2026 at 11:16 am
Go ancestral general intelligence
@homewall744
March 4, 2026 at 11:51 am
Ancestral “intelligence” includes slavery, war, kings/rulers who live off the extorted labor of the people.
@keyboardcommando7493
March 4, 2026 at 11:19 am
Lol 😆 this woke ideal
@inhaleacetone
March 4, 2026 at 11:20 am
While AI can be a beneficial modern way of communicating, will it be able to sustain protection when it comes to the water supply, labor, and vulnerable communities?
@tom-kz9pb
March 4, 2026 at 11:29 am
Human beings have long been prone to such things as ancestor worship, and reverence for antiquity, as if there were some deep wisdom in the distant past that has been lost. Much of that attitude stems from religiosity.
Perhaps that is in large part superstition and sentimentality. The further back in time that you go, the more that you tend to find ignorance, superstition, oppression, and just as much violence, bloodshed and warfare, lacking only the modern technology that makes violence more potent.
We might do as well to abandon such phrases as “ancient wisdom”, as representing mythology.
What we need is a more sober reckoning with past sins, and a future-orientation, to figure out how to ameliorate problems like depleting resources, climate change, and optimization of population levels, before the problems become catastrophic.
@MarkiePaddock
March 4, 2026 at 11:31 am
I loved this! Thanks for sharing ❤
@homewall744
March 4, 2026 at 11:50 am
I didn’t hear any real examples of “ancestral intelligence” that is special here, as anybody alive can see that big power can both destroy and help. No elephant takes from everyone to benefit itself….that’s a purely human trait by people who actually hate the people and think rulers are the path to morality.
@Buckfoo
March 4, 2026 at 11:57 am
Culture causes war.
@UncreaedTv
March 4, 2026 at 12:18 pm
Nah, culture teaches us who we are. It connects you to your higher self.
@Buckfoo
March 4, 2026 at 12:50 pm
@UncreaedTv Culture reinforces the illusion that one group of people is better than another claiming being connected to “higher self”. Sunshine, there is no higher self. Culture makes someone no better than those without and the attitudes culture brings is often dangerous and does cause wars.
@RxAwesome33
March 4, 2026 at 12:27 pm
Can someone translate this mumbo jumbo into a coherent statement?
@SuleAndah
March 5, 2026 at 6:04 am
Someone doesn’t know how to turn on subtitles 😅
@RxAwesome33
March 5, 2026 at 10:46 am
@SuleAndahI can understand her words, the accent is not the issue here. I am missing the core point she’s trying to say. Something about African LLMs, Ubuntu (the concept not the OS), and elephants
@kansuiotto4739
March 4, 2026 at 12:31 pm
I find it extremely racist to assume that people outside native africans don’t have any ancestral knowledge or proverbs that could guide us to more ethical AI. Yes, the vast majority of stakeholders in this are white people but this not a result of white people being inherently more selfish, but rather of an elite people of rich people being inherently more selfish or rather with the means to act this way.
@Tucanzz
March 4, 2026 at 12:48 pm
Nanjira! I remember her from that TED talk about remembering people’s names!
@UnknownEntity102
March 5, 2026 at 7:53 am
SAMEEEE
@micphoenix8200
March 4, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Bananas and rice
@JoeJoey-p2p
March 4, 2026 at 5:16 pm
No
@hekatetrivia1727
March 4, 2026 at 5:54 pm
I wish I could have my time back from this.
@khadelsnerdo
March 4, 2026 at 7:00 pm
Jesus Christ. Another inmates running the asylum situation
@haganology
March 4, 2026 at 7:02 pm
We wuz ai an sheeeeeiiiiittttttttttt
@Feel_the_ASI
March 5, 2026 at 5:24 am
This entire talk was “we created a small 2.4B LLM for Africa” told via an elephant metaphor. Whoever gave a standing ovation at the end should be ashamed of themselves. Open source models will absolutely destroy whatever slop they cobbled together. Another useless DEI talk from TED.
@SuleAndah
March 5, 2026 at 6:10 am
I appreciate your courage to be seen so clearly it makes muthafukhas uncomfortable ❤
@ninjabard1898
March 5, 2026 at 12:21 pm
The only thing AI needs is to take a long walk off a short pier over the Mariana Trench.
@wife9571
March 5, 2026 at 7:37 pm
most racist comment i’ve ever section ever on TED talk. sensitive losers who hate what they don’t understand
@bShitdipanShoe
March 7, 2026 at 7:13 am
Go back to our roots.
Our ancestral religion.
Away from imposed foreign religions during imperialism.