On August 5, Captain Kris Yeary was awakened around 3 a.m. by a wildfire in Southern California. But, unlike usual, the firefighters were not notified by an emergency call: the alert came from artificial intelligence.
The officer immediately returned to the San Diego command center. On the numerous screens dedicated to monitoring the region, a column of smoke emanated from Mount Laguna, about 70 kilometers away.
Firefighters quickly dispatched personnel to put out the flames within an hour. As a result, the fire consumed barely a thousand square meters and never threatened the 1,600 residents of Pine Valley, the small town below.
point smoke
Cradle of Silicon Valley, California, is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, this technology that is based on algorithms capable of imitating certain human behaviors and improving on their own.
Now he’s using it to fight wildfires, which have killed more than 200 people in the last decade and are getting worse with climate change.
Since late June, the software has continuously scanned 1,040 cameras, scattered at high points throughout the University of San Diego’s Golden State, and alerts Cal Fire firefighters when it believes smoke is detected.
Initial results are so promising that the system now equips every emergency command center in the state.
“Our indicator of success is the fires you never hear about,” adds this professor of geology and geophysics at the University of San Diego.
A pretty paranoid robot
Specifically, each firefighter on duty responsible for scanning dozens of cameras in their area now has AI assistance. When the software thinks it detects smoke, it displays a small red rectangle on the screen, with a percentage indicating its degree of certainty. It is then up to the operator to confirm the severity of the alert.
Because at the moment, the robot seems quite paranoid: it can mistake dust raised by tractors, insects sneaking past the camera or simple fog for the start of a fire.
Thanks to the expert eye of firefighters and their feedback, the AI continually improves to perfect its alerts. A welcome help, far from scaring firefighters, unlike many professions: Hollywood actors and screenwriters, accountants, cashiers, etc. – who fear being out of work because of this technology.
“This saves us time to react more quickly,” adds his colleague Leininger. “If we have… very strong winds, that can really make the difference between a large fire and a small fire.”
“An early confirmation”
The system promises to be valuable in a State at the forefront of climate change, which is suffering from increasingly voracious megafires.
California has experienced 18 of its 20 largest wildfires in the past two decades, and warming caused by humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels “is the driving force behind much of this,” according to a UCLA study. published in May.
Beyond the “Golden State,” this pioneering program could serve as an inspiration to firefighters around the world, after the hottest summer ever recorded on the planet, marked by devastating fires in Canada, Europe and Hawaii.
Given the magnitude of the threat, the scientist chose to grant public access to the data on his platform, so that other companies or academics can work on it.
“We must take advantage of all our strengths and work together, because climate extremes surpass us all,” he concludes.
Source: BFM TV
