In December, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung hosted a virtual briefing featuring researchers from Climate Change AI (CCAI). They talked about the role machine learning can play in facilitating climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, AI applications that increase emissions, and energy use in AI itself. On the topic of facilitating climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, a number of examples were given where AI could help. These include: gathering information, forecasting, improving operational efficiencies, predictive maintenance, accelerating scientific experimentation, and approximating time-intensive simulations. The researchers then talked about AI applications that increase emissions.

In a digital world, how do we build empathy into the algorithms that run our lives? Join us for a special virtual briefing hosted by Greg Williams, Editor of WIRED with Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, and author of'Girl Decoded' as they discuss how to bring emotional intelligence to technology during a global health emergency, such as the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Even before the coronavirus pandemic began earlier this year, the world had already moved to an increasingly digital setting. Emails, texts and social media interactions were fast-becoming the norm over physical meetings. However, words convey only a fraction of the true meaning behind a message, and as a result, we are missing key physical, non-verbal cues that give us a more complete understanding of each other.