AI primed to optimize disaster relief

The Yomiuri Shimbun Next fiscal year the government plans to start developing a system for medical information and communication using artificial intelligence (AI, see below) to minimize the damage to humans in the event of disasters, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. If a large-scale disaster occurs, the AI technology will analyze the equipment and transportation routes that are best suited for the treatment of injured people and notify concerned authorities of the information. The government expects that high-level information-processing capabilities through AI will help reduce the damage of future disasters, and it aims to put the system into practical use within three to five years. To prepare for earthquakes and other natural disasters whose scales of damage have been increasingly large, the government intends to regard the disaster management field as a priority issue in AI development. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology -- a state-run research and development institute -- will begin studies for the development in April next year jointly with private companies.