Small rays of hope in our fight against Climate Change - Blog 2 (Artificial Intelligence)

Climate change remains perhaps the greatest challenge still unsolved - can the Fourth Industrial Revolution become the game-changer in this space?

We are already seeing a digital disruption which is blurring boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds by fusing advance technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, etc.

There is a unique opportunity to harness these advancements in a responsible way to help address environmental issues and climate change. However, this needs to be treaded carefully as left unchecked these technologies could have further unintended negative consequences as well. 

In today’s blog, I wanted to list down few examples of how Artificial Intelligence is being used to fight climate change. AI is no silver bullet, but it will prove valuable in the fight against the climate change. There are multiple use cases ranging from using AI and satellite imagery to better monitor deforestation, to developing new materials that can replace steel and cement (the production of which accounts for nine percent of global green house gas emissions). Recently some of the biggest names in AI research came together to create a roadmap on how AI can help tackle climate change. The below chart describes how each sub-discipline of machine learning can help fight climate change, where the darker colors represent more opportunities to pursue. (Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613838/ai-climate-change-machine-learning/)

Big giants like Microsoft and Google are also using AI for environmental innovation. For example, a grant from Google is helping a non-profit financial think tank ‘Carbon Tracker’ to improve imagery efforts to include gas-powered plants’ emissions and get a better sense of where air pollution is coming from. AI is automating the analysis of images of power plants to get regular updates on emissions. It can introduce new ways to measure a plant’s impact, by crunching numbers of nearby infrastructure and electricity use. Carbon Tracker will now crunch emissions for 4,000 to 5,000 power plants, getting much more information than currently available, and make it public.

Microsoft’s AI for Earth partners is also using AI to to solve some of the biggest environmental challenges. Their OceanMind initiative works with government authorities to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by analyzing vessel movements in real time. AI algorithms identify suspicious behavior, which OceanMind shares with agencies to direct patrol boats more effectively. (Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-earth-partners?activetab=pivot1:primaryr4)

JJAIBOT (an Artificial Intelligence robot created by Julian Jewel Jeyaraj) is spreading awareness towards environmental, psychological, and wildlife preservation. It is helping people understand the effects of climate change and wildlife conservation by using AI to comb through wildlife research, conservation projects and other data sets. It has has already attracted over a million followers on Instagram and the content he's created has been viewed several million times across different platforms. (Source: https://www.accesswire.com/561702/Julian-Jewel-Jeyaraj-Introduces-Julian-Jewels-Artificial-Intelligence-Bot-JJAIBOT-A-Platform-to-Combat-Mental-Illness-Wildlife-Preservation-and-Environment-Protection) 

Another great example comes from 50 Reefs that combines advanced imaging technology with AI to gather and analyze images of shallow-water reefs at scale. Using deep learning, the AI is able to recognize different types of corals based on their colors and textures, giving scientists a powerful array of information to track the effects of climate change on coral populations around the world and make more informed decisions on how to ensure their survival. Working with some of the world’s top coral reef scientists, the study actually identified a greater number of reefs than had originally been anticipated. Following the publication of the science, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced $86 million in funding — one of the largest philanthropic donations ever for coral reef conservation. (Source: https://theoceanagency.org/50reefs/)

There are numerous other such examples where AI is being used responsibly and adding small rays of hope in our fight against climate change. The faster and smarter we can become through the use of AI and machine learning, the higher our probability of success to at least slow down the damage caused by climate change.