Image credits: Bruno Kelly

California turns to AI to help detect wildfires

Firefighters in California are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect wildfires, feeding videos from more than a thousand cameras strategically placed across the state into a machine that alerts rescuers when to mobilize.

In an example of the program's potential ALERTCalifornia AI, released last month, a camera detected a fire that started at 3 a.m. local time in the remote Cleveland National Forest.

ADVERTISING

With people sleeping and darkness hiding the smoke, it could have spread and turned into a raging fire. But the AI ​​alerted the firefighters and, within 45 minutes, the fire was extinguished.

Developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego and using AI from DigitalPath, the platform has 1.038 cameras installed by various public agencies and energy utilities across the state.

Experts wait that the technology could one day serve as a model for other states and countries around the world, a need urgently felt by forest fires exceptionally devastating in Hawaii, Canada and the Mediterranean this season.

ADVERTISING

Read also

* The text of this article was partially generated by artificial intelligence tools, state-of-the-art language models that assist in the preparation, review, translation and summarization of texts. Text entries were created by the Curto News and responses from AI tools were used to improve the final content.
It is important to highlight that AI tools are just tools, and the final responsibility for the published content lies with the Curto News. By using these tools responsibly and ethically, our objective is to expand communication possibilities and democratize access to quality information.
🤖

Scroll up