How AI could power the climate breakthrough the world needs -- On the other side of the world, Silicon Valley startup ClimateAi is developing an artificial intelligence platform to evaluate how vulnerable crops are to warming temperatures over the next two decades. -- “The way we think about AI is it’s a time and effectiveness multiplier to the solutions for climate change,” Gupta told CNN. -- Better assessing future risks for farming is just one of the ways artificial intelligence technologies are being used to address the climate crisis. AI first crashed into the public consciousness this year thanks to popular, consumer-facing AI tools like ChatGPT, and experts say the technology is set to revolutionize countless industries. But climate researchers have for years been thinking about how AI — computer programs that can rapidly analyze enormous amounts of data and complete -- better understand and address the changing climate. AI explainer STOCK RESTRICTED Tom Werner/Stone RF/Getty Images Everything you need to know about AI but were too afraid to ask Now, experts say AI is poised to accelerate everything from reducing pollution to improving weather models. “Efficiencies is one thing that AI is very good at, optimizing decisions, optimizing resources,” said Fengqi You, chair professor at -- warming, accelerating the speed at which the world deploys and implements solutions is crucial. But for all of AI’s promise, the infrastructure that supports the technology — data centers filled with -- types of approaches.” An artificial intelligence platform developed by ClimateAi is helping tomato growers in India adapt to extreme weather. An artificial intelligence platform developed by ClimateAi is helping tomato growers in India adapt to extreme weather. -- Artificial intelligence is a broad term that refers to various digital tools trained to perform a wide range of complex tasks that might -- This makes AI particularly good at things like forecasting and running simulations. And unlike traditional computer programs, AI tools can typically continue learning over time as new data is available or as -- conduction materials, like those for solar panels, could require countless hours of testing that can now be sped up using AI. -- researchers working every day and night,” You said. “Now, because of AI, which doesn’t need to sleep, it just needs electric power, it could keep working 24/7 and it can become very helpful in accelerating -- AI probably won’t replace the need for humans in the climate change fight. But it could make their work faster and more effective. -- Researchers seeking to restore coastlines by replanting seagrass, for example, are using AI to model the best locations to target those replanting efforts, said Dan Keeler, chief communication officer at -- An AI algorithm trained to address the issue could take into consideration everything from toxins in the water or disruptive -- “It’s very difficult to put all those together into a single model with conventional methods, but AI actually makes that much more possible,” Keeler said. AI ‘doing the dirty work’ in climate research -- With the help of AI, Anna Liljedahl, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, can make permafrost forecasts on a seasonal -- “AI is doing the dirty work,” Liljedahl told CNN. “But AI is not perfect, so we see it as a first tool, and then the human will come in after and really check and make sure that things make sense and explore the things that AI suggested.” The technology can also be used for solutions. A 2019 Google DeepMind project trained an AI model on weather forecasts and historical wind turbine data to predict the availability of wind power, helping to increase the value of the renewable energy source for wind farmers. AI can also help predict when and where energy demand is going to be -- a tremendous waste,” said Keeler. Artificial intelligence can be used to help better predict the supply and demand for renewable energy sources. Artificial intelligence can be used to help better predict the supply and demand for renewable energy sources. -- ClimateAi’s Gupta said the problem is figuring out how to integrate renewable capacity into the existing fossil fuel-dominated grid. AI can identify in real-time which renewable energy sources are available in -- Elsewhere, AI is also being used to research materials that could effectively recapture carbon from the atmosphere and to model and -- understand the climate crisis and potential solutions, is set to launch an AI tool early next year that will answer user questions about how to live a more sustainable lifestyle, according to Anna Robertson, -- For now, the amount of energy used to power AI is relatively small compared to what’s consumed by transportation or buildings. “But this -- An October study from Dutch researcher Alex de Vries estimated that the “worst-case scenario” suggests Google’s AI systems could eventually consume as much electricity as the country of Ireland each year, assuming a full-scale adoption of AI in their current hardware and software. Developers should be advised “not only to focus on optimizing AI, but also to critically consider the necessity of using AI in the first place, as it is unlikely that all applications will benefit from AI or that the benefits will always outweigh the costs,” the study concludes. Data center operators like Google are already thinking about how to reduce the resources needed to power the computing behind their AI models. Data center operators like Google are already thinking about how to reduce the resources needed to power the computing behind their AI models. -- The companies building and running data centers to carry out AI workloads can also think about strategically placing them in areas -- Lawmakers in the United States and abroad — who have in recent months increasingly turned their attention to developing guardrails for AI — should consider both the technology’s potential benefits in fighting -- “Regulators, decision makers, policymakers really need to think about this when they are looking at the growth of [the AI] industry,” You said. “The growth of the industry is not only about the software, tools -- Tech experts also caution that AI must be made affordable and accessible for low-income nations, particularly those in the Global -- “When it comes to AI being applied to climate change,” said Gupta, “I think we are just scratching the surface of the potential that exists