Despite the promises, until today artificial intelligence it hasn’t proven that it can actually save the planet from the climate crisis. However, if the field of intervention is narrowed (and the messianic expectations towards machine learning algorithms are reduced) there are now numerous demonstrations of how much these new technologies can still help us to cope with natural disasters that more and more often hit the Earth.
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An example was provided by Google during the November 9th Inventors online event, during which they were shown the results of an academic research (not yet audited) conducted by the University of Jerusalem and Google Research: the paper illustrates the progress made by the river flood forecasting initiative made its debut in 2018 by the Mountain View giant, which today allows over 360 million inhabitants, in an area that covers parts of India and Bangladesh, to receive timely reports directly on their smartphone.
The alerts (sent via sms or notifications, but also visible via Google Maps or by consulting the Google Flood Hub) not only inform about the rise of rivers, but thanks to machine learning they also make a forecast of the extent and depth of the flood, allowing the inhabitants of the affected areas to get an idea of the danger of the situation: “We already know today that the people who receive the alerts have the twice as likely to leave the area for safety. And this is already an encouraging result ”, said Sella Nevo, engineer of Google Research, on the sidelines of the event.
For the moment, no details have been disclosed on the operation of this system, which only in 2021 has tripled the number of notices sent, reaching 115 million and that today it is also possible to consult it through the search engine, obtaining in exchange visual information that allows you to get an idea of the extent of the flood and receiving specific advice to be safe.
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The future and quantum computers
During the same event, information was also provided on Google advances in quantum computing: considering that (among other things) this new technology should allow us to obtain more accurate weather forecasts, will it also be able to anticipate natural disasters of all kinds with greater precision and in advance? According to the statements of Marissa Giustina, scientist of Google Quantum AI, it is too early to predict what the fields of application of this new computer frontier will be: “We still do not know what they will be the practical uses best suited to quantum computers and it is also for this reason that it is difficult, at the moment, to assess which companies or countries are further ahead in their development “. Some ongoing research, however, is focusing precisely on the possibility of identifying thanks to quantum computers the first signs of an impending earthquake or other situations of great danger.
The only certainty, for now, is that they will be tools used for highly specific tasks and not intended to replace the traditional general purpose computers that we use in everyday life: “It is not a tool that will retire the previous ones. – Giustina always explained – From a certain point of view, it’s a bit like the invention of space rockets: they are the only way we have to go to the moon, but it does not mean that we have stopped using cars or planes to move around our planet ”.
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