New Discovery: AI Might Be The Answer To Climate Change

Climate change is now something no one can deny and so does our responsibility to lessen the consequences that come with it. Time is critical as we only have 12 years to do something before more severe disasters take place, as well as prevent the temperature to rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is when IA kicks in.

According to Henrik Brink, founder of Ento Labs, with the assistant of AI, we could be able to come up with patterns in power consumption and then find ways to use it better by analyzing related data. He said that this is arguably the most direct method to reduce emissions.

Energy efficiency might help us fight climate change

To support his point, Brink argued that the need for energy would increase rapidly in the future. While switching to electricity might help lower the amount of emission but if we did not pair it with a viable method to use electricity more efficiently, the indirect emissions would be our next problem.

Ento AI is the creation of Brink and his company. It can estimate firms’ power consumption and forms plans based on what it learns. With the effect on the environment in mind but still take the firms’ interest into consideration, the AI can come up with strategies to promote electricity efficiency.

This may sound exactly like a tool to help companies make more money, but if it did not consider their profit, there was no way these firms would co-operate.

Using AI to help us consume power efficiently is more complicated than most of us think. However, to put it in simpler terms, this could mean when to use electricity. In the future, we may rely on batteries to store excess energy and AI can calculate in real-time which source to use to emit the least exhausted fumes.

The idea of using AI to optimize the way we consume energy and reduce emission sounds really interesting but it relies heavily on how available the needed information is.

According to Brink, useable data is key. Not any kind of data can be used right away. Companies do store this information but it lies in different places. Things are not as simple as putting everything you find in.

The same issue exists in bigger electricity grids. While the smart meters, a more reliable tool than checking manually, are growing in popularity, its data is not gathered in one place or worse, is not available, which can be a huge obstacle for AI.

Brink emphasized the importance of an information hub where all the needed data is stored. Such centres will help AI scale the data, which is the main point of using AI.

This is not a new idea as firms like Google has already had similar AI for internal use. However, to realize the ambition of applying the same technology on larger power grids, good data is still needed.

Some nations have already given companies like Ento Labs access to the data on electricity consumption for the sake of protecting the environment and also consumers. One of them is Denmark, where Ento’s headquarter is. This kind of support should come from more countries so that AI can do its job optimizing energy consumption based on the existing data.

Henrik Brink is optimistic about the future of AI. He said that this was only the first step to reduce emissions. Other methods might emerge later to further help us use energy more efficiently.

Brink repeated the ability to plan power consumption of AI and said that in order to do that, AI must be allowed to get access to all the needed data.

With our current situation, by the year 2050, we must emit no carbon dioxide and better, achieve that goal sooner. To meet that goal, what we can do is to consume less meat, switching to renewable energy sources. Cutting down on plastic is also advisable, as well as collecting and storing data in a better way. We are the one responsible for climate change and we need to do everything in our power to lessen its impact on the environment. One of the most viable solutions is AI and it is our duty to take advantage of it to save our planet.