Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Really Be Used to Help Heal the Planet?

January 24, 2019

An article I wrote recently for Forbes discusses the transition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from an enterprise app to one being used in the field — quite literally.

AI has been known for helping businesses make better decisions, automate core tasks and other activities, but it also is playing a critical role helping to protect our planet, preserving wildlife, preventing forest fires, protecting marine life, and in many other ways that may not get the same attention as business apps.

As I’ve discussed recently, here in Puerto Rico Wovenware has been fortunate to participate in an important environmental and health project to help prevent mosquito-borne illnesses.

It’s very rewarding to apply our AI expertise to help address issues impacting the general population and environment. But the mosquito project is just one example of environmental AI; there are so many more.

Machine learning is being used to monitor wildlife and determine the population of snow leopards. It’s also being used to predict where forest fires might erupt, by using historical meteorological data and an artificial neural network; helping to combat wildlife poachers; and using satellite imagery to track coral bleaching in the oceans and look for marine life diseases and pollution.

As the Forbes article explains, by augmenting the time-consuming, manual counting and categorizing activities typically done by humans to create massive datasets, AI is letting us go to places that were previously impossible. AI is no longer about helping businesses succeed, but healing our common planet as well.

How else do you see AI being applied out in the world?


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