Microsoft and Department of Energy Will Create Disaster Response AI Tools

Last week, the Department of Energy and Microsoft said they were partnering to create AI tools for disaster response. The DOE has created the First Five Consortium, which refers to the critical importance of how first responders make decisions in the first five minutes after a disaster strikes.

Microsoft and the DOE, along with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Pentagon’s Joint AI Center, will apply AI tools to:

• Wildfire prediction and fire line containment (which is especially timely at the moment)
• Damage assessment
• Search and rescue
• Natural disasters

This is an area where deep learning could excel

Why? We have ample amounts of weather sensors and data. Deep learning models, which improve with scale, can use that data to make predictions or find patterns.

As multiple natural disasters unfold across the U.S., improving modeling and responses is a necessity. AI won’t be a perfect predictor. But with accelerating climate change, the more tools we have, the better.