What Could Go Right?
Why AI and Drones Won’t Bring the Apocalypse | with Sarah Kreps
Published: 3 June 2026 at 07:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
What does a future where autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence collide on the battlefield look like? Sarah Kreps, a Cornell University professor and former US Air Force officer, joins host Zachary Karabell to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of drones and military AI.
The conversation looks beyond the doomsday prognostications surrounding lethal tech. Kreps shares insights from her time in the military around 9/11, reflecting on how constantly gaming out worst-case scenarios surprisingly led her to a more optimistic view of the future. Together, Karabell and Kreps explore the recent tensions between AI companies like Anthropic and the Pentagon. They also examine whether historical conventions for nuclear or biological weapons can offer a blueprint for governing AI and ubiquitous drone swarms.
While acknowledging the genuine uncertainties of our technological leap, Kreps explains why false certainty about the apocalypse is dangerous and why she believes society can harness this disruption without breaking.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.
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