Conference-Notes

Experts speak. A Robotics professor and a researcher in Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University discuss how AI can aid in the fight against climate change

When you read the title, you might wonder: How can something as virtual and abstract as AI assist in combating something as vast and tangible as climate change? Fortunately, the speakers have developed a clever framework that makes this understandable and logical by breaking it down into three clear areas: understanding the problem, predicting the direction, and assisting in the required transformation.

1. Understand the Problem

What do we know for certain? CO2 levels are rising, and the greenhouse effect is real. However, data collection is not very detailed. In the ocean, AI aids in operating autonomous underwater robots equipped with sensors. Remote control is impractical because radio waves do not work underwater, making AI a useful tool for enabling independent navigation.

Africa is a continent with countless challenges, yet the energy question is, of course, a global one. Because ’necessity is the mother of invention’, this panel suggests that it is worthwhile to look at Africa to see what solutions are being found there for energy supply.

First, some facts. 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have no electricity. An average refrigerator in the West uses as much electricity as a family in Kenya or Nigeria. And while global energy supply is improving, it is also predicted that by 2030, 90% of people without electricity will be in sub-Saharan Africa.

What happens then: Leapfrogging the grid. Just as mobile telephony meant that the landline telephone network was more or less skipped over, people are now installing solar on their roofs themselves. Because you can’t necessarily count on the government. South Africa is highly dependent on coal, but the high-grade coal is shipped to China, and South Africa itself has to make do with low-grade. And that’s not going to change quickly: The government is closely intertwined with the coal industry.

According to the Condorcet theorem, bigger crowds do better. If each individual independently decides with the same probability, the collective reaches ’the right’ decision fast. If the individuals can connect, the collective behavior can become very rich and complex. See Linux, wikipedia.

But on social networks, there is no collective ‘goal’ besides connecting, recreation. Still, the chatter can predict the box office receipts. And Google search terms shows where people have flu, better than any medical database. It is also shown that happiness and loneliness is contagious; if many people in your network are lonely, you feel more lonely too.

Step 1: Getting acquanted

KLM started with social media to support existing channels. Try things out, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Get started first.

Step 2: seizing the opportunity.

The ash cloud was a good opportunity to get started with Twitter and Facebook. Call centre and web site were both overloaded. Had a 24/7 shift system, 4 people on Twitter, 4 on Facebook, 4 rebookers per shift. Management was very involved, encouraged initiatives. Very empowering. Klm added a ‘rebook’ tab on their Facebook profile, which helped in getting the right information from the travelers.

KLM discourages personal reactions by individual staff members. The company often can not do anything with it, and it can give a negative backlash on Klm. See recent incident with Thomas Acda