It’s bad out west. Rising temperatures, historic droughts, rampant wild fires. A record 4.3 million acres burned last year in California. This year, 85% of California is in extreme drought, and seven major wildfires have already been burning across the state.
But take heart. AI is coming to the rescue.
Silicon Valley techies are pairing up with firefighters to spot fires before they escalate out of control.
Tech industry maven Steve Blank, a startup expert who teaches at UC Berkeley and Stanford University, is touting a future in which satellites detect fires as soon as they start; artificial intelligence software dispatches firefighting drones.
That future may be here already. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has started using AI, satellites, and drones to control fires.
Phillip SeLegue, deputy chief of Cal Fire’s Intel unit, said the agency has adopted the data-processing platform Technosylva, which forecasts, monitors, and predicts fires and their spread.
SeLegue also noted that AI software that processes imagery from Cal Fire aircraft and sends it to ground commanders to show fire locations should be in full use this year.
Can AI save the west from the long-term consequences of climate change? Probably not. But it should improve our ability to treat the symptoms until we get the disease under control.