🔥 Can AI Help Us Stop Wildfires? Ethical and Practical Challenges
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Right. So we're diving into AI and wildfires. Yeah. Which... Definitely a hot topic. It is a hot topic. Yeah. And increasingly so.

you know, with a million acres lost just in California alone in 2024, like we have to do something. Right. And AI and robotics seem like, well, they could be part of the solution. Absolutely. I think that they offer some really interesting tools. Okay. In terms of, um, yeah. Where do we even begin with this? Like where does AI even fit into? Well, the thing about,

The thing about AI is it's really good at crunching data. Okay. Can you just explain that a little bit more? Yeah. So you can think about all the information we have about weather, vegetation, what kind of plants grow where. Historical fire data. Historical data, exactly. Yeah, right. And AI can kind of look at all of that and...

find patterns and trends that we might miss, that humans might miss completely, that might be, you know, really subtle or really complex. So give me an example of like what is a trend that it might pick up on that we would never in a million years see? So you could imagine like, you know, the moisture levels deep in the soil. Okay. And how that might be affected by like, you know, rainfall patterns over the past

you know, several months or even years. Okay. And how that combined with wind patterns and the types of trees that are in a certain area. Right. Because different trees burn differently. Exactly. Different trees burn differently. Yeah. And so it can kind of put all that together and say like, oh, this little microclimate. Oh, interesting. You know, this little tiny area is actually at a much higher risk. Right. Than maybe the area next to it. So it can predict it kind of like those hyperlocal areas. Yeah, exactly. Like even down to like

you know, a few square feet potentially. So it's not even just like, oh, this whole region is at risk. It's like pinpointing it. Exactly. It's getting really granular. Okay. That's incredible. And that's something that humans just, you know, we can walk through a forest. Yeah. Right. We can look around. We can see dry brush. We can see the dry brush, but we can't see, you know, 10 feet below the surface. We can't see what the wind is going to be like, you know, three weeks from now. Exactly. Yeah. And so AI can kind of take all that into account.

So this is all about prediction then? A lot of it is about prediction. Yeah. Okay. So it's not even just about fighting the fires. It's about knowing they're going to happen. Right. It's about getting ahead of them. Before they even start. Exactly. So then what about these AI-powered...

drones and sensors I've been hearing about. Oh, yeah. Are those like are those real? Is that something that's actually being implemented? Yeah, absolutely. So you can think about these as like little robot fire spotters. OK. Constantly out there scanning the forests. Looking for smoke. Looking for smoke. Looking for heat. Yeah. But even more than that, they can pick up on like really subtle changes. OK. In the environment. Well, give me an example.

- So the way that vegetation reflects light can actually change.

If there's like a fire starting to smolder underground. Really? So even before there's visible smoke or flames. The AI can pick up on these like super subtle. It can pick up on those changes. Wow. That's incredible. And that early detection is really key. Right. Because then you can get firefighters there right away. Exactly. You can get a faster response time. Yeah. Stop it before it gets out of control. Before it becomes a raging inferno. Yeah. Okay. So we've got prediction. We've got detection. Mm-hmm.

What about actually fighting the fires? Okay. Is there AI for that? There is. Yeah, this is where it gets really interesting. Okay. So they're actually developing robots that can do things like, you know, clear brush. Okay. To create what are called fire breaks. So that's like you're creating a barrier? Creating a barrier so the fire can't spread. Okay. Some of them can spray fire retardant.

Oh, wow. And we're even getting close to robots that can go in and like directly extinguish flames. No way. Yeah. So like a robot's going right up to the fire? Pretty much. Like putting it out. Putting it out. Yeah, it's pretty wild. That seems really dangerous. It is dangerous, but that's why the AI is so important. Okay. So these robots are equipped with AI that can help them analyze, you know, things.

the fire's behavior, predict its movements and kind of find the safest and most effective route to approach it. So it's not just like a dumb robot going in. Yeah. It's got to be smart. It has to be smart. Yeah. It's got to be able to react to changing conditions. It's like a super smart firefighter that doesn't get tired or scared. Exactly. Yeah. It can go places where it would be too dangerous for a human. Right. Okay. So we've got prediction,

We've got detection. We've got these firefighting robots. Right. That is a lot of AI and robotics. It is. And it makes me wonder, like, where do we go from here? That's a good question. What are we going to see in five, ten years? That's really hard to predict. Ironic. Yeah, it is ironic. But I think we can expect to see even more sophisticated AI. Okay. You know, maybe AI that can predict things.

fire behavior with even greater accuracy. And the robots will probably become more agile, more versatile, more autonomous. So they'll be able to think for themselves even more? Yeah, potentially. Wow. You know, maybe they'll even be able to work together in teams. Like a whole team of robot firefighters. Like a well-oiled firefighting machine. That is crazy. That's a whole lot to think about.

It is. Well, thanks for taking us on this deep dive. Yeah, of course. It's been fun. I definitely feel like I learned a lot and have even more to think about now. That's what we like to hear. All right. Until next time. See you then. Bye. Bye.