Artificial intelligence and environment: 12 operational projects

Learn about the correlation between artificial intelligence and environment in this article. We present you with different ways in which artificial intelligence can make you and break you. But we also try to tell you more about how it can make you focus on the positive!

The very earth that we are trying to connect to is in grave trouble. She is bearing more children every day and that number is way more than what she can carry. Being her children, we are always demanding more and more from her. We need food, space to live, and water indefinitely to help us solve the riddle of our existence. In pursuance of what really matters to us, we have come to a point where we have begun building.

Building is a part of our civilization, and we are building every day. But what we are now building is more unique than what we have built before. Migrating from building buildings, our babies, universities, and homes, we have migrated towards the creation of a super intelligent force- the real summation of our human existence- artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence and environment: constant combat

Creating artificial intelligence has tripped the world for the worse. Increased resources are being consumed in trying to create it. But as humans, we have learned that what destroys us when it’s built can also relieve us when it’s a complete asset. We learned it from our children. Each of our children brings a certain kind of change that often seems destructive to us. But with each, some of our children come together to elevate us and our existence.

The question is, will there be anything like artificial intelligence and environments in the future?

What is artificial intelligence?

According to coordinator David Jensen of UNEP’s Digital Transformation subprogram, AI is a machine system that can typically operate with the help of human intelligence. They are being put in place to help create a more coherent way of operating than humans can currently render and deliver. Over time, artificial intelligence would learn to adapt and intelligently improve. They would do it by coordinating information together and learning more perfect ways of coordination and skilful adaptation.

The term artificial intelligence was coined way back in 1956 by John McCarthy. AI was supposed to be a step ahead of machines – intelligent machines.

Nishant et.al. and Duan et al. state that AI can perform tasks for humans and learn while performing tasks- a trait quiet similar to humans. The best part of AI is that it can adjust to new points overriding its previous points on the same fact to create a more wholesome database of information. It can do so while dueling the environmental challenges that come its way better than humans.

 What would happen if artificial intelligence and the environment were in one box?

Environment and sustainability are terms we are hearing more and more about now. Environmental sustainability as per the UN document, Our Common Future, commonly referred to as the Brundtland Report, defines sustainability in a certain way.

Sustainable development is the ability of our generation to meet our needs while also not disturbing the environment enough. The goal is to allow future generations to meet their needs while we meet ours.

The environmental crisis has driven people towards the concept of sustainability.

Artificial intelligence is currently being developed faster to meet the gap created by human activities towards meeting the above-mentioned objective.

The use of environmental factors is paving the way for artificial intelligence. Sooner, artificial intelligence and the environment are expected to get coined under a unique banner where AI gives back to the environment.

Two roadblocks towards collaborating on artificial intelligence and the environment

What do you need to consider when thinking of creating the next masterpiece?

The use of energy for creating it and the switching of electricity and power goals for devising a cleaner environment are crucial factors.

Here is a breakdown of the points for you to consider.

The quoted decline in GtCO2 by 2050 as per contributing industries (electricity, industry, transport, buildings, and others) is charted below.

Data from IEA (International Energy Agency)

·         Net-Zero needs to be kept in mind:

You can see the difference in carbon emissions between the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) and the Announced Pledges Case (APC) here. One only needs to know that by creating artificial intelligence, supercomputers and even robots can tip this balance off easily. The GtCO2 decided upon, as per the APC, is drastically lower than what is anticipated to come with the addition of artificial intelligence building and generation.

·         Country-wise distribution of electricity over decades.

Find out what or how the consumption of electricity will change over time. This change will need to be considered when generating energy for AI building during these active years.

Artificial intelligence and environment- several levels of operations

The goal of building artificial intelligence is to support our existence. Our existence, artificial intelligence, and the environment are tied together in a circle. It won’t be wrong to say that it could just be like one end and another begins.

Artificial intelligence is currently being tested and implemented at three different levels.

1. Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI):

A machine is trained to make decisions and perform only a specific task. As an example, you could count Google searches as fitting this definition.

2.    Artificial General Intelligence (AGI):

The true synthetic intelligence of a machine and its development come under AGI. Under this level, a machine can think like a normal human towards a specific task and perform it with an accuracy equal to or more than the human performance level. Visualize through the example of driving cars with AI controlling the wheel.

3.    Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI):

At this level, an AI machine will be smarter than a human in every field of operation. This process would involve the conglomeration of general wisdom, social skills, and scientific knowledge.

Already, robots are being thought to be the best individuals to solve the problem of waste removal from the environment.

There are different domains where artificial intelligence and the environment can be brought together to promote sustainability.

Domains	Role of domains
Machine Learning	Statistical analysis of past data and experiences put forth by humans.
Artificial Neural Networks	Using different parallel variables for predicting and forecasting water resources is possible.
Robotics	Aligning the cognitive behavior of humans with their emotions (IQ + EQ). They can be used for cleaning debris and fixing problems where human reach still remains questionable.
Natural Language Processing	Joining computer vision with NLP to allow machines to pick data from speech and visual occurrences
Fuzzy Logic	It can be used, as it is currently being used for deciding which problems appear from rooting.
Expert Systems	Using Fuzzy logic with ML to aid the decision- making process, as seen in separate studies.

When different levels and domains come together, a unique product, preferably called artificially intelligent beings, could arise in the near future.

Present AI modelers to solve the issues of the environment

Artificial Intelligence and environment are equanimous to Artificial Intelligence and climate change and there are many tools which come together to solve these differently existing problems.

Here is a list of them you might want to consider when looking up for Artificial Intelligence and the environment.

Artificial Intelligence Models	Area of work
ARIES	Biodiversity monitoring and conservation
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center (LLSC) (Area neural network, expert systems, pattern recognition and fuzzy logic)	Energy conservation, use and distribution
Intelligent Traffic Management System (IMTS), AIMS, IoT, ANN (Machine learning, computer vision)	Traffic management and safety in public transportation system
Artificial neural network (ANN): Neuro-fuzzy inference system, support vector machine (SVM) as the major Machine learning (ML)	Forecast stream flow and generate analysis of different water quality parameters
Different monitoring models	Towards creating a sustainable environment

Next, we would see what kinds of AI models are already being used for generating a new future. The current running AI models that are here to solve the environmental issues are right now being tried and tested in many different niches and areas.

12 current operating projects of collaboration of artificial intelligence and environment

These are the 12 collaborations that are being tried by people in terms of bringing the artificial intelligence and the environment closer. Also, understanding each of them briefly is what we have placed here for your reference.

1. Planetary Computer by Microsoft

2. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operated by Stanford University

Using machine learning to identify grid vulnerabilities, failure management of grids enables quicker restoration of power during failures.

3. Researchers at the Department of Energy and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The organization uses artificial intelligence to understand and deal with different atmospheric conditions to increase the energy output of wind farms.

4. IBM’s Green Horizon project

They use artificial intelligence to forecast air pollution and track different pollution sources. In this way, they will be able to provide potential strategies to combat it.
Another of their projects aims to learn better ways of combating heat waves. Understanding how well to develop the city’s flora and fauna based on the heat wave assessments is what they aim for.

5. Ocean Data Alliance

The Ocean Data Alliance is working towards data collection to support surveillance of shipping, ocean mining, fishing, coral bleaching, or the outbreak of a marine disease.

6. Nature Conservancy partners with Microsoft 

They are planning to map the ocean’s wealth to understand more about seafood harvesting, tourism, carbon storage, and so on.

7. Pittsburgh transport monitoring system

They implement AI at 50 intersections (plan for more than 150) and have brought down the traffic time level by 25 minutes already.

8. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Averaging climate models is being initiated to give equal weight to all the currently running models. Artificial intelligence is helping determine which models can work better than others.

9. Autonomous tractors

Tilling to satisfaction, ploughing the land, calculating the planting of seeds precisely to avoid wastage of resources and seeds, soil composition and quality monitoring, and spraying fertilizers.

10. Plantix, PEAT GmBH

A free app to diagnose different diseases in plants through simple photos taken through different mobile devices.

11. UN AI Advisory Board

The UN AI advisory board, launched on October 19, 2023, by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, will work to keep a check on the risks and benefits, as well as opportunities, from the use of these technologies. The board is supposed to regulate the international governance of these technologies.
They would also help achieve 17 sustainable development goals that will serve as the blueprint for a greener and cleaner world.

.

12. Adaptation to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan African Humanitarian situations

Adaptation to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan African Humanitarian Situations. The project covers Burundi, Chad, and Sudan. Use of AI for the mitigation of climate change vulnerabilities among internally displaced communities and refugees facing climate risks in these three locations.

FAQs (Frequently Answered Questions): Artificial Intelligence and Environment

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence and the environment are like a lizard eating its own tail. If you have to think about how to make artificial intelligence work in the right direction, you will need to envision some bypasses. These bypasses will ensure the development of artificial intelligence does not take much, yet gives back ten times what it takes. It should be designed in the same model the current world uses to utilize human resources.

Thus, without carefully considering what it can and cannot do, investing in artificial intelligence might not be the right step forward. Artificial intelligence for climate change is an essential step, but the step has several roadblocks, and each roadblock is a mammoth problem in itself. How fast to change the equation and what to do to make things better need to be considered carefully before going further.