Anousheh Ansari joins the podcast to discuss how innovation prizes can incentivize technical innovation in space, AI, quantum computing, and carbon removal. We discuss the pros and cons of such prizes, where they work best, and how far they can scale. Learn more about Anousheh's work here: https://www.xprize.org/home  

Timestamps: 

00:00 Innovation prizes at XPRIZE 

08:25 Deciding which prizes to create 

19:00 Creating new markets 

29:51 How far can prizes scale?  

35:25 When are prizes successful?  

46:06 100M dollar carbon removal prize 

54:40 Upcoming prizes 

59:52 Anousheh's time in space

Anousheh Ansari on Innovation Prizes for Space, AI, Quantum Computing, and Carbon Removal

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change. The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions. FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.