Artificial Intelligence Can Stop Wildfires In Their Tracks

In September, after one of the most violent wildfire seasons in California history, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would allow utility companies to charge customers for future legal settlements from the 2017 wildfires--even if they were the utility company's fault. It's meant to prevent Pacific Gas & Electric Co. from going bankrupt; as the AP reported, the company would have to pay billions of dollars if investigators found the company's equipment at fault for sparking the Tubbs Fire that killed 22 people in Santa Rose and made thousands more homeless. Consumer advocates have criticized it as a bailout, with utilities having to augment their efforts to reduce the risk of fires. Furthermore, the law requires to pay the entire cost of accidental fires if they fail to properly maintain electrical transmission stations and distribution power lines. After yet another devastating summer of flames raging through California's parched forests, utility executives are forced to figure out one thing: How can they limit the danger of electrical transmission equipment and distribution power lines igniting vegetation and sparking yet another devastating wildfire?