direct-air-capture

Direct air capture (DAC) machines pull carbon dioxide out of ambient air with chemical sorbents or solvents, then release it as a pure stream for storage or use. The technology works. The constraint is energy and cost: reported prices run from about $600 to more than $1,000 per tonne, and operating capacity is a tiny fraction of annual emissions.

AI is already modeling the climate with unprecedented precision. But could it actually run a planetary-scale effort to pull carbon out of the atmosphere and cool the Earth?