Future Perfect explores provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. We tackle big questions about the most effective ways to save lives, control new and potentially dangerous technology, and address world poverty to create a more perfect future. Good Robot is a new series about AI from Unexplainable and Future Perfect.
Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

What can we actually do as our world gets populated with more and more robots? How can we take control? Can we take control?

This is the final episode of our four-part series, Good Robot.
Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. 
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
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Future Perfect

Good Robot #4: Who, me?

A simple parable about a drowning child sparks a moral revolution. Can AI help us do the most good in the world?

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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Good Robot #3: Let's fix everything

When a robot does bad things, who is responsible? A group of technologists sounds the alarm about the ways AI is already harming us today. Are their concerns being taken seriously?
This is the second episode of our new four-part series about the stories shaping the future of AI.

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good Robot #2: Everything is not awesome

Before AI became a mainstream obsession, one thinker sounded the alarm about its catastrophic potential. So why are so many billionaires and tech leaders worried about… paper clips?

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot

Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good Robot #1: The Magic Intelligence in the Sky

A new series about AI from Unexplainable and Future Perfect
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Introducing: Good Robot

Most of our efforts to fight climate change, from electric cars to wind turbines, are about pumping fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But what if we could pull out the gases that are already there? Akshat Rathi, a reporter at Bloomberg with a doctorate in chemistry, knows more about this technology, called “direct air capture,” than just about anyone. He follows companies like Carbon Engineering and Climeworks that are trying to figure out how to take regular air and pull carbon dioxide out of it.
If their plans work, they could mean a world with net negative emissions: less carbon in the sky than there is right now, and a cooler planet. But his reporting has also highlighted how elusive carbon capture can be, and how tricky it can be to make the tech work at an affordable price. Rathi and Vox’s Dylan Matthews discuss how direct air capture works, how it’s different from capturing carbon at a fossil fuel plant, and the struggles of one direct air capture company in particular.

Read more of Akshat’s work here:

Inside America's Race to Scale Direct-Air Capture Technology - Bloomberg

Crushed Rock Could Capture Billions of Tons of Carbon Dioxide - Bloomberg

Britain Is Getting Ready to Scale Up Negative-Emissions Technology - Bloomberg

Planting Trees Isn’t a Simple Climate Change Solution It Seems - Bloomberg

The story behind the world’s first large direct air capture plant — Quartz (qz.com)

The ultimate guide to negative-emissions technologies — Quartz (qz.com)

Host:
Dylan Matthews (@DylanMatt), senior correspondent, Vox 
Producer: 
Sofi LaLonde (@sofilalonde)

More to explore:
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