The world is ablaze. Quite literally, much of the time. Predicting these disasters before they spiral out of control – or better yet, before they even happen – is crucial for the future of our planet and our quality of life. It’s a massive issue on a global scale, but it’s one that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, believes it can help tackle.
“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,” says Sarah Russell, head of Project Bellwether, in a social media post.
The latest initiative from Google’s moonshot factory X, Project Bellwether, was officially unveiled this week. Its goal is to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools to swiftly identify and respond to natural disasters such as wildfires and floods. If successful, it could be a gamechanger for first responders.
“Until now, it’s been extremely difficult and costly to use AI for geospatial inquiries, but our team has leveraged the latest advances in machine learning (along with some solid engineering) to completely rethink the whole process,” Russell adds.
Project Bellwether’s launch coincides with the news that the United States National Guard’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will be utilizing the organization’s “prediction engine.” According to the team, current technology has the potential to delay response times by hours or even days, resulting in devastating consequences for human life and property.
“Right now, our analysts have to manually sift through a large number of images to find the ones that cover the areas most affected by natural disasters,” explains Col. Brian McGarry of the National Guard. “They then have to identify the surrounding infrastructure, label all relevant features, and only then can they highlight significant damage and relay the information to first responder teams.”
The Bellwether team has already developed two tools. The first is a forecast system that can predict the risk of wildfires up to five years in advance. The second is a response tool that aids first responders in identifying critical infrastructure after a natural disaster or extreme weather event.
Google has been exploring the potential of using machine learning and AI to predict natural disasters for some time now. The collaboration between Project Bellwether and the National Guard could serve as a crucial validation of this work.
