A discussion about leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and technologies to advance ethical climate solutions.
View the webinar below.
Relevant National Academies Resources:
Research to model the climate system has driven advances in computing dating back decades. As the scope of climate-related impacts has grown in recent years, calls to better understand the complex climate system and leverage growing volumes of data for decision making have become more urgent. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools hold the potential to transform difficult computational problems and uncover new solutions to address the challenges of climate change. Stephen Lacey (Post Script Media) moderated a conversation between Priya Donti (MIT) and Amy McGovern (University of Oklahoma) about the challenges and opportunities related to the current and future role of AI and ML in advancing climate solutions. The conversation touched on the potential to deploy AI tools to support climate action, considerations around aligning the energy demands of AI with climate-relevant goals, and opportunities to integrate principles of accountability, transparency, and equity into these tools’ development and use.
Climate Conversations: Pathways to Action is a monthly webinar series from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that aims to convene high-level, cross-cutting, nonpartisan conversations about issues relevant to policy action on climate change.
Participant Bios
Priya Donti is an incoming Assistant Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the co-founder and Executive Director of Climate Change AI (CCAI), a global nonprofit initiative to catalyze impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. Her research focuses on machine learning for forecasting, optimization, and control in high-renewables power grids.
Stephen Lacey is a veteran business journalist, editor, and audio producer who has been covering the energy transition for nearly two decades. He's the executive editor and co-founder of Post Script Media, a media company focused on covering climate solutions at the intersection of tech, business, and culture. He's the host of "The Carbon Copy," a popular narrative-news show about the business trends shaping the energy transition. Stephen is the co-chair of the Transition-AI conference, an event that brings together top minds in energy, climate, and artificial intelligence.
Amy McGovern is a professor in the School of Computer Science and in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. Dr McGovern is also the director of the NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography. Her research focuses on developing and applying trustworthy AI and machine learning methods primarily for severe weather phenomena.
