Some days it truly feels that the world has gone mad. But behind the neck-snapping political and social shifts we're seeing, the pace of technological, biomedical and scientific progress continues to accelerate. Truly jaw-dropping demonstrations of tech power are emerging almost every day. And they are likely to play a huge role in the story of the coming years.

All of this is genuinely amazing, tapping into every sense of that word — from shockingly disturbing to thrillingly hopeful. It looks to us as if it's time to collectively breathe deep and prepare for a remarkable new era as politics, globalization, technology, the future of work, and what it even means to be human are all reinvented before our eyes. Forget fake news! We want to offer up the real news.

So for TED2018, we'll be tapping into the resources of an expanded curatorial group and going all-out to bring you visibility into the key developments driving this future, from jaw-dropping AI to glorious new forms of creativity to courageous advocates of radical social change. We'll include critics and skeptics, but also the quiet heroes driving ideas we can rally around. And through it all, we'll seek an exciting and insightful way forward.