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Alphabet X’s Bellwether harnesses AI to help predict natural disasters


The world is on fire. Quite literally, much of the time quite literally. Predicting such disasters before they get out of hand -- or better yet, before

“Bellwether is X’s moonshot to understand and anticipate changes across the planet, so that any organization, community, or business can ask smarter and more timely questions about the natural and built environment,” project head Sarah Russell says in a social media post. “Until now, it’s been epically hard and expensive to apply AI to geospatial questions, but our team has harnessed some of the most recent advances in machine learning (plus some straight-up solid engineering) to re-think the whole endeavor.” The first is designed to forecast the risk of wildfire “up to five years into the future.” The second is a response tool that helps first responders “identify critical infrastructure” in the wake of natural disaster or extreme weather.

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