Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday outlined a global effort run by "machine-learning" artificial intelligence is essentially spying on individual facilities in every country in the world to measure their emissions of greenhouse gases and target the world's largest emitters. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gore formally introduced attendees to the initiative known as Climate Tracking Real-Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions, or Climate TRACE. The initiative has led to a website that allows for real-time tracking of emissions in any area of the world, which Gore said is allowing climate activists, reporters and others to identify high-priority industries and regions for emissions reduction programs. "It's a non-profit coalition that uses artificial intelligence to process data from 300 existing satellites and from 30,000 land, sea and air base sensors and multiple internet data streams to use artificial intelligence to create machine-learning algorithms to zoom in on every single significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution," he said of Climate TRACE. Gore showed how Climate TRACE uses these inputs to zoom in on specific facilities and assess how much they contribute to GHG emissions.

Just as artificial intelligence has improved the decisions organizations make to optimize financial performance, improve processes, meet customer needs, and more, it will be critical in helping them reach their climate goals. In fact, because it can gather, complete, and interpret large, complex datasets on emissions and climate impact, A.I. is fundamentally important in helping to manage the full range of climate-related issues. BCG recently conducted a global survey of 1,000 leaders in A.I. and climate that tells us more about that potential--as well as the barriers getting in the way. We found that 87% of respondents feel that advanced analytics and A.I., or simply "A.I.," is a helpful tool in the fight against climate change today, but only 43% say that they have a vision for using A.I. in their own climate change efforts. Approximately 87% of respondents to a BCG survey found A.I. is a helpful tool in the fight against climate change.

Just as artificial intelligence has improved the decisions organizations make to optimize financial performance, improve processes, meet customer needs, and more, it will be critical in helping them reach their climate goals. In fact, because it can gather, complete, and interpret large, complex datasets on emissions and climate impact, A.I. is fundamentally important in helping to manage the full range of climate-related issues. BCG recently conducted a global survey of 1,000 leaders in A.I. and climate that tells us more about that potential--as well as the barriers getting in the way. We found that 87% of respondents feel that advanced analytics and A.I., or simply "A.I.," is a helpful tool in the fight against climate change today, but only 43% say that they have a vision for using A.I. in their own climate change efforts. They see the greatest business value for AI in the reduction and measurement of emissions.

Different parts of the globe are experiencing distinct climate challenges -- severe drought, dangerous flooding, reduced biodiversity or dense air pollution. The challenges are so great that no country can solve them on their own. But innovative startups worldwide are lighting the way, demonstrating how these daunting challenges can be better understood and addressed with AI. Here's how five -- all among the 10,000 members of NVIDIA Inception, a program designed to nurture cutting-edge startups -- are looking out for the environment using NVIDIA-accelerated applications: India-based Blue Sky Analytics is building a geospatial intelligence platform that harnesses satellite data for environmental monitoring and climate risk assessment. The company provides developers with climate datasets to analyze air quality and estimate greenhouse gas emissions from fires -- with additional datasets in the works to forecast future biomass fires and monitor water capacity in lakes, rivers and glacial melts.

A lot happened this week in the AI space. The Guardian wrote an article with GPT-3 and again demonstrated that no matter what OpenAI paid to train and create the language model, the free marketing might be worth more. After losing the JEDI cloud contract appeal with the Pentagon, Amazon appointed to its board Keith Alexander, who oversaw the National Security Agency mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden leaks in 2013. And Portland passed the strictest facial recognition bans in U.S. history, outlawing government and business use of the technology. However, AI Weekly attempts to reach into the zeitgeist and highlight the issues on people's minds. This week without question it's the smoke that has hung over the western United States and the underlying problem of climate change.

A lot happened this week deserving of attention in the AI space. The Guardian wrote an article with GPT-3 and again demonstrated that no matter what OpenAI paid to train and create the language model, the free marketing might be worth more. After losing the JEDI cloud contract appeal with the Pentagon, Amazon appointed Keith Alexander to its board -- the man who oversaw the National Security Agency mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden leaks in 2013. And Portland passed the strictest facial recognition bans in U.S. history, outlawing government and business use of the technology. However, AI Weekly attempts to reach into the zeitgeist and highlight important events on people's minds. This week without question it's the smoke that's hung over the western United States and the underlying issue of climate change.

New carbon emission tracking technology will quantify emissions of greenhouse gas, holding the energy industry accountable for its CO2 output. Backed by Google, this cutting-edge initiative will be known as Climate TRACE (Tracking Real-Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions). Advanced AI and machine learning now make it possible to trace greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from factories, power plants and more. By using image processing algorithms to detect carbon emissions from power plants, AI technology makes use of the growing global satellite network to develop a more comprehensive global database of power plant activity. Because most countries self-report emissions and manually compile results, scientists often rely on data that is several years out of date.