It's artificial intelligence to the rescue (and response and recovery)

This article is adapted from GreenBiz's weekly newsletter, VERGE Weekly, running Wednesdays. As global losses rack up from climate change-exacerbated natural disasters -- from voracious wildfires to ferocious hurricanes -- communities are scrambling to prepare (and to hedge their losses). While information technologies such as machine learning and predictive analytics may not be able to prevent these catastrophes outright, they could help communities be better prepared to handle the aftermath. That's the spirit behind a unique collaboration between Chicago-based technology services company Exigent and the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, one that aims to create a more cost-effective and efficient marketplace for disaster relief and emergency response services. The idea is to help state and provincial governments collectively build a more centralized inventory of relief supplies and other humanitarian items based on the data from a particular wildfire or hurricane season.