Tech company Nvidia and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin are teaming up to create an artificial intelligence that they hope will help fight forest fires across the world.
In 2020 alone, there were more than 58,000 wildfires that burned over 10 million acres of forest. On average, from 2011 to 2020, the Earth loses around 7.5 million acres every single year.
The two tech companies hope to tackle this issue together by creating an A.I. capable of predicting the spread and movement of future fires. An incredibly complex task, the A.I. is already studying previous fires to better understand how they move. The A.I. takes into account things like wind direction and speed, topography, what is being burned, and more to build a complete picture of where the fire might spread further.
It's not just a series of numbers and graphs, either. Thanks to Nvidia's graphical expertise, the information gathered can be easily displayed in user-friendly and immediately understandable ways. The fires could be viewed on 2D screens, virtual reality headsets, or using Augmented Reality tools like HoloLens.
While the two companies are currently partnered with US Forest Service and the Colorado Fire Prevention Agency, they intend to make the technology available to communities across the world. The companies even hope to bring the tech to developing countries thanks to the power of cloud computing.
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While many have concerns for the future of A.I. (understandably so), it's amazing to see the good this technology can do when applied to problems that need solving as soon as possible.
Feature image: Nvidia via Youtube.com
