The Department of Energy’s (DoE) Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO) has developed the First Five Consortium, which was formed in response to the White House Executive Forum focused on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response, the department reported on Tuesday.
“AITO is proud to lead on getting near real-time information into the hands of our First Responders,” said Cheryl Ingstad, director of AITO. “This will allow them to save more lives and protect assets and our nation’s resources.”
DoE’s First Five Consortium has been co-chaired with Microsoft Corporation, to unify industry, government, non-profit and academia to develop solutions that will improve the impact mitigation of natural disasters within the nation.
Microsoft recently established a critical infrastructure team to help advance systems, services, and functions essential to the operation of society and the economy. Comprehensive data collection together with modeling hold huge promise for forecasting and detecting early signs of coming disasters.
The company’s team will explore avenues to use AI, confidential computing, modernized communications, distributed systems and cybersecurity to improve disaster resilience. Microsoft will collaborate with DOE and DoD.
The First Five Consortium will apply artificial intelligence and deep learning methodologies to address a variety of research and development areas, including: Wildfire prediction and fire line containment; Damage assessment, ingress and egress routes for impacted areas; Search and rescue; and Natural disasters including hurricanes and tornadoes.
DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has reported the creation of a prototype initially developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) that will integrate deep learning algorithms.
The prototype will provide near real-time data to improve the decision making of First Responders. Since 2019, the JAIC has led the development of AI capability through its National Mission Initiatives.
“We are delighted to work alongside our partners in government and private industry to advance the role of AI in battling natural disasters," said Nand Mulchandani, acting director of the DoD JAIC. "We’d like to thank the White House for identifying and encouraging the broader use of government-built technology to directly benefit the American people when disasters strike.”
