TAMPA, Fla. — Hurricanes are a significant concern for Floridians and communities along the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Eastern Seaboard.
Experts tell ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska artificial intelligence for natural disasters like hurricanes can save lives.
Imagine drones with artificial intelligence flying over disaster areas and artificial voice intelligence helping survivors and victims get help. Those are real-world applications some agencies are experimenting with right now when responding to Earth's most catastrophic natural disasters.
"Like all technology, AI is just a tool," Neil Sahota said.
Sahota is an advisor to the United Nations on artificial intelligence.
"There are two focuses; one is on the recovery aspect. So people that have an urgent, dire need, if we provide quicker systems, how do we locate people faster? How do we get medical supplies, food, and other things to where they need it as quickly as possible or get them there in advance?" he said.
"The second is the predictions. We don't fully understand the behavior of a hurricane. And so just even kind of stuff. Sometimes, you're still surprised by the route it takes them to realize that there are other factors in play, like, you know, ambient air temperature and pressure and ocean currents as well as temperature. So we're putting together the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle based on all that data."
Sahota said that AI is only as good as the data humans put in. Right now, they need more agencies to come on board who believe in the technology and are willing to invest in it as our climate continues to change.
ABC Action News contacted the Florida Division of Emergency Management and several of the Tampa Bay area's largest counties. None are using disaster AI for hurricane relief, recovery, or mitigation. Sahota describes that as missed opportunities.
"If everyone got on all on board all in, we probably have something pretty robust in a couple of years. That's, that's the honest truth. Committing the resources and money, that's a different story," Sahota said. "If we can at least pull all the people together, pull the resources from all the impacted areas. We could probably move mountains; we really could. It's just the reach out that whole kind of building, that kind of ecosystem is not in people's mentality."
The United Nations is researching the benefits of AI for other natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, to name a few.
"You have 12 different AI robots that now help fight wildfires," Sahota said. "There's been a lot of work with hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, avalanches, all that predict when these things might happen."
AI is a powerful tool with limitations.
"AI relies on historical data. And if you don't have detailed records of what you have done in response to a disaster, and then kept track of what's worked, what hasn't worked, AI isn't going to really do much for you," Rayid Ghani, Professor of Machine Learning and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon Universitysaid. "So that's been kind of one of the challenges that people have faced is you can sort of, there's a lot of data on kind of predicting things because things happen, but there's not enough data on how you responded and what worked and what didn't work."
As more agencies come online, experts say AI will continue to adapt and ultimately keep more people safe.
"Could it save lives?" Paluska asked.
"100%, we could save lives," Sahota said.
