683. In the New Space Race, Who Makes the Rules?
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
Governments started the space age. Now, billionaires and private firms are reinventing it. Guest host Steve Levitt explores what the past can teach us about a high-stakes future. (Part two of a two-part series.)
- SOURCES:
- Blaise Agüera y Arcas, vice president and fellow at Google, C.T.O. of technology and society.
- Rosanna Hoffman, head of space law, policy, and sustainability at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
- Alex Macdonald, former first chief economist at NASA, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
- Will Marshall, co-founder and C.E.O. of Planet Labs.
- RESOURCES:
- "The mission to create a searchable database of Earth's surface," by Will Marshall (TED, 2018).
- The Long Space Age, by Alex Macdonald (2017).
- Planet Labs A.I.
- EXTRAS:
- "Should A.I. Move to Space?," series by Freakonomics Radio (2026).
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Preeconomic radio is sponsored by Everpure. Is the value of AI not living up to the promise? The problem is probably your data, not your AI models. When it's scattered across different systems, getting your data AI ready is a challenge. You keep your AI waiting and everything slows down. Everpure unifies your data so you can see it, understand it and control it all from one simple place and get it AI-ready fast. Unlock the true value of your AI at EverpureData.com. Preeconomic radio is sponsored by Hotels.com. Hotels.com helps you find and book the right stay for work faster. With business preferences, save your travel must-haves like gym access or breakfast. Just once, then get tailored results whenever you search for work travel. Plus, with a free membership, you can save up to 20% on Hotels and earn rewards on every stay for future travel. Click now at Hotels.com, visit Hotels.com for details. Preeconomic radio is sponsored by Amica. You know what they say. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So go with Amica and get coverage from a mutual insurer that's built for their customers, one that looks after what's important to you together. photo, home, life, and more coverage that fits your unique needs, Amica helps you protect what matters most, visit amica.com and get a quote today. Preeconomic radio is sponsored by Mint Mobile. With Mint Mobile's summer sale, all of Mint's plans are $15 per month, even unlimited. The free yourself from Big Wire listen switch to Mint for high-speed data and coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/freak. That's mintmobile.com/freak. Upfront payment, $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 months. Plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy, includes up to 20 gigabytes hotspot. Be capable device required, availability, speed, and coverage varies, see Mint Mobile.com. Couple months ago, Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire after his rocket company SpaceX had the largest IPO in history. Two weeks later, Musk lost his trillionaire status, at least temporarily. Why? Part of the answer is AI. The SpaceX is also now an AI company, having gobbled up XAI, another Musk firm. And AI investments are, as you probably know, pretty volatile at this moment. But SpaceX, along with several other big players in the new space race, are still betting huge on AI, specifically putting AI in space. This would mean fewer power plants and data centers on our planet. It could also mean hundreds of thousands of new objects in the skies, increasing the risk of collision, environmental degradation, and perhaps much more. In last week's episode, my free economics friend and co-author Steve Lebit talked to some of the people involved in Google's attempt to move AI to space. I fully expect that by the year 2100, the great majority of energy used in the solar system will be going toward AI and will be both harvested and consumed off Earth.
Transcription truncated.
Governments started the space age. Now, billionaires and private firms are reinventing it. Guest host Steve Levitt explores what the past can teach us about a high-stakes future. (Part two of a two-part series.)