The environment is a precious resource.
As concerns about climate change continue to grow, many people look towards technological advancements as ways to empower our society to better coexist with nature. In particular, artificial intelligence may hold the keys to a brighter future. Below are a few of the ways that AI can improve our environmental outlook.
Connected Electric Vehicles
Advances in AI, especially for electric vehicles, creates an opportunity for connected and autonomous vehicles for public transportation. This could significantly reduce the initial investment for establishing a public transportation network, even in areas with low population density. Bus and train routes often don’t make sense in rural areas. AI may be able to change that.
Connected vehicles can also optimize themselves, maximizing the number of people being transported in the same vehicle at once. This eliminates the need for buses and trains to run along routes even when there is no one riding. In fact, it eliminates the need for set routes completely. Instead, public transportation can be called and used on-demand.
Smarter Food Production
Artificial intelligence can help us produce food more efficiently. Systems working together to collect information, make decisions and take corrective action can significantly improve agriculture. Currently, a small group of humans is making choices about producing food with incomplete information.
With microservices, many AI systems can manage production with more accurate data. In this model, numerous applications collaborate in a system rather than the entire system being controlled by a single, monolithic application. In food production, this fits perfectly because decisions need to be made on both the micro and macro scale. Learn more about this with this microservices tutorial.
Planning for the Weather
Natural disasters can wreak havoc on our society. Disaster recovery is often resource inefficient and can have a negative impact on the environment. Additionally, changing weather patterns can help us better understand our role in climate change. Improvements to artificial intelligence are helping us predict the weather and understand it better.
Increasingly intense storm systems are a major concern in climate science. More data and more analysis can help researchers discover new insight into how our actions affect weather and climate.
Smarter Cities
Advanced, interconnected cities may not be a thing of science fiction for long. Real-time data collected around cities could help them better self-manage water, energy, traffic and more. Cities are already getting smarter through AI. In fact, one city in China has already served as a testing ground for the idea. In the future, these technologies will likely grow more advanced and capable.
This could help improve living conditions, sustainability and competitiveness of cities. Like other artificial intelligence advancements, smart cities let us be more efficient about how we live. It is a new frontier for how the places where we live can operate.
A More Transparent Planet
A lot of environmental issues happen because perpetrators are able to harm our world without being noticed. For example, illegal deforestation frequently goes unnoticed or those who do notice turn a blind eye. Artificial intelligence can help us better map and monitor the world around us. We already have the tools for collecting data but lack the ability to monitor that information in real-time.
Environmental scientists can examine wildlife, ecosystems, water supplies and more using AI. It is a powerful way to shine a spotlight on those who seek to exploit the earth we all share for their individual gain. Artificial intelligence makes it so that fewer people can monitor vastly more environmental data.
Our environment should be important to all of us. Unfortunately, for most of human existence it has been difficult to advance our societies without taking away from the natural world around us. Today, artificial intelligence is making it easier for us to be efficient about how we use natural resources. We can minimize our damaging impact while still supporting our needs. That is an exciting prospect for everyone.
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