What does the future of AI and robotics look like in our daily lives and as a career field? In a special episode of the Quantum Potential podcast recorded in front of a live audience during Reunion 2025, Provost C. Cybele Raver talks with Matthew Johnson-Roberson, the inaugural dean of the College of Connected Computing. Johnson-Roberson is an internationally recognized roboticist and computer scientist whose work spans underwater robotics, computer vision and large-scale engineering collaborations such as self-driving robotic delivery vehicles. In this episode, he shares his expertise about the impact of rapidly evolving AI and robotics for the average person and for those interested in AI-focused career fields.

This episode was produced by Vanderbilt University and created through the collaboration of Randolph Infinger, Sydney Jones-Wright, Amber Palmer-Halma, Patrick Sams, Jennifer Stevens, Whit Stiles, Maisie Wilson, and Amy Wolf.

Special thanks to Jad Abumrad, Vanderbilt University Distinguished Research Professor of Communication of Science and Technology and the executive producer of the Quantum Potential podcast and video series.

Copyright 2025, Vanderbilt University.

For more information about Quantum Potential, go to vanderbilt.edu/quantumpotential/podcast.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or Vanderbilt University.

Follow Vanderbilt on Social Media: http://social.vanderbilt.edu/

Political propaganda and artificial intelligence–driven misinformation are infiltrating social media accounts, and Americans need to do something about it. That’s the warning revealed in research from two Vanderbilt professors and discussed on this special episode of the Quantum Potential podcast. The researchers explain their breakthrough red flag discovery and how they uncovered evidence of a state-sponsored company in China that is deploying sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns and profiling U.S. political figures.

Brett J. Goldstein is a research professor who leads the Wicked Problems Lab at the Vanderbilt University Institute of National Security and is a former Pentagon official. Brett V. Benson is an associate professor of political science and a faculty affiliate at the Institute of National Security who uses models to study some of the world’s complex security challenges.

Goldstein and Benson talk with Vanderbilt provost C. Cybele Raver about the growing threat of AI-driven propaganda and the warnings they wrote about in a guest essay in The New York Times, “The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act.”

This episode was produced by Vanderbilt University and created through the collaboration of Randolph Infinger, Sydney Jones-Wright, Amber Palmer-Halma, Patrick Sams, Jennifer Stevens, Whit Stiles, Maisie Wilson, and Amy Wolf.

Special thanks to Jad Abumrad, Vanderbilt University Distinguished Research Professor of Communication of Science and Technology and the executive producer of the Quantum Potential podcast and video series.

Copyright 2025, Vanderbilt University.

For more information about Quantum Potential, go to vanderbilt.edu/quantumpotential/podcast.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or Vanderbilt University.

Follow Vanderbilt on Social Media: http://social.vanderbilt.edu/

The American spirit of competition can be counterproductive for some industries.

In this episode of Quantum Potential, Ganesh Sitaraman, New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law, professor of law, director of the Program in Law and Government, and director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver to explore why businesses that provide essential services—like energy, transportation, communication and banking—should be governed differently than small businesses.

Drawing from his research and recent book, Why Flying Is Miserable and How to Fix It, Sitaraman unpacks how policies meant to boost competition have eroded the consumer experience—and how a governing framework known as NPU law (the law of networks, platforms and utilities) might offer solutions for industries disrupted by deregulation.

The Quantum Potential podcast is produced by Vanderbilt University. The leadership team includes Metanoya Z. Webb, director of content and editorial strategy for this episode, and Sydney Jones-Wright, director of academic affairs communications. Patrick Sams is the senior social media specialist, and Maisie Wilson is the senior creative project manager. Mike Todd is the university visual media manager.

Special thanks to Jad Abumrad, Vanderbilt University Distinguished Research Professor of Communication of Science and Technology and the executive producer of the Quantum Potential podcast and video series. We also want to thank Major Jackson, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, for lending his voice to the end credits for this episode.

For more information about Quantum Potential, go to vanderbilt.edu/quantumpotential/podcast.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or Vanderbilt University.

Copyright 2025, Vanderbilt University.

Follow Vanderbilt on Social Media: http://social.vanderbilt.edu/