Three Ways AI is Having a Positive Impact on the Planet

Society has a fluctuating relationship with artificial intelligence (AI). On one hand, it’s revolutionizing almost every aspect of human life, from how we work and study to how we buy groceries. For some people, this is a good thing – AI is speeding tasks up and reducing effort. On the other hand, there’s a push towards a slower pace of living, with many feeling fatigued by the constant churn of technology. 

One of the reasons that AI can sometimes come under scrutiny is because of the impact it has on the planet. For those who are concerned about climate change, expert suggestions that AI carbon emissions are equivalent to the airline industry are highly problematic. But what if the impact of these emissions can be weighed against the good that AI can do for the planet? 

In this post, we share some of the amazing advancements that are possible because of AI.

Visualizing the impact of climate change

Climate change can sometimes feel like an abstract concept. We understand that it’s happening, and can see the impact in our local communities, but it’s hard to grasp the wider effects. On a national level, this can make it difficult to encourage policymakers to act in time to make the changes we need as a society to reduce global warming, or prepare for major events such as flooding and wildfires. 

AI can bring climate change to life in a way that is accessible, creating a space where different climate policies can be modeled to aid decision making. 

Data sharing across agencies

As the global temperature increases, countries find themselves dealing with climate disasters that they’ve never experienced before. It’s hard to predict impact without previous data, but all too often, formatting, security, language barriers etc mean that data isn’t easily shared across different climate agencies. 

AI can pull together key data from across the world, sharing insights from countries already dealing with issues such as extreme heat. This has the potential to reduce the damage done by these events, as well as potentially saving lives.

Alert systems for biodiversity

Unfortunately, the levels of biodiversity around the world are under threat due  to human activity. As a result, monitoring is essential in order to ensure that plants, animals and humans stay in balance – but this can be both challenging, thanks to tricky terrain, and time consuming. AI can help continuously monitor at-risk species, without researchers needing to constantly disturb wildlife and their habitats. Monitoring stations can be set up and then left to run, with technology such as facial recognition picking up animals of interest. 

The other benefit of this is that this can all be done and accessed remotely (aside from initial setup and maintenance), meaning that a much wider pool of researchers can benefit from this information and find solutions to protect our planet.

A balanced approach

AI has the potential to be transformative – but the benefits have to be consciously weighed with the costs. Only by being mindful with how we use this technology can we ensure that it becomes a force for good.