An innovative Microsoft program to help solve some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time

‘Al for Earth’ is putting artificial intelligence in the hands of researchers and organizations to help them solve important issues related to water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change

‘Al for Earth’ is putting artificial intelligence in the hands of researchers and organizations to help them solve important issues related to water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change

‘Al for Earth’ is a Microsoft’s new program that will use the power of AI supercomputer to solve global environmental challenges. It will offer non-governmental organizations and other groups access to AI tools and technologies to enable them understand and tackle issues related to water, agriculture, climate change and biodiversity. Microsoft will invest more than $2 million into this program in the next year, as the company acknowledges that latest innovative technologies often require computational expertise and are not for free (open).

‘AI for Earth’ is based on the following three pillars:

Access: Access will be improved by making a new pool of grants available to help researchers and organizations gain access to cloud and AI
computing resources. This includes access to Azure compute time and Microsoft’s data science virtual machine offerings on Azure, applications that are already available.

Education: New training and educational opportunities will be provided to make sure people and organizations know what AI tools are
available, how to use these tools and how the tools can help meet their specific needs. The company aims to a broad and deep approach, reaching many
people through general session trainings as well as small group faculty summits on single issue areas and training for grantees.

Innovation: Microsoft wants to encourage others to innovate based on the power and potential of AI. There will be partnerships on lighthouse projects that demonstrate how AI can deliver results more rapidly, accurately and efficiently. Currently, there are three projects underway – one enabling land cover mapping to aid precision conservation; another that will enable smart agriculture through sensors, drones, data and broadband connectivity; and another that will test the viability of using Microsoft’s smart mosquito traps to remotely track and monitor species health.

Source: Microsoft