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AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires (sfgate.com) 16

Posted by EditorDavid from the burn-rate dept.
The Associated Press reports: On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona's Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn't a cloud or dust, then alerted the state's forest service and largest electric utility. One of dozens of AI cameras installed for the utility Arizona Public Service had spotted early signs of what came to be known as the Diamond Fire. Firefighters raced to the scene and contained the blaze before it grew past 7 acres (2.8 hectares).

As record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack raise concerns about severe wildfires, states across the fire-prone West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help save lives and property. Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state's fire agency has deployed seven of its own. Another utility, Xcel Energy in Colorado, has installed 126 and aims to have cameras in seven of the eight states it serves by year's end... ALERTCalifornia is a network of some 1,240 AI-enabled cameras across the Golden State that work similar to the system in Arizona....

Pano AI, whose technology combines high-definition camera feeds, satellite data and AI monitoring, has seen a growing interest in its cameras since launching in 2020. They've been deployed in Australia, Canada and 17 U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington and Texas... Last year, its technology detected 725 wildfires in the U.S., the company said... Cindy Kobold, an Arizona Public Service meteorologist, said the technology notifies them about 45 minutes faster on average than the first 911 call.

AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires More | Reply

AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires

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  • for early detection AND SONIC EXTINGUIPATION

    seriously, between this and the sonic fire suppression article a bit ago, there's a good idea to be had. Too bad we couldn't just get this done, it'd be helpful

  • So adding some camera feeds that AI can comb over doesn't seem like much of a stretch. Toss a Starlink on each tower, a few cameras and send all those feeds to the cloud for analyst seems like a pretty afford idea.

    • How long before it is AI cameras to detect forest fires and autonomous AI to find and extinguish forest fires?

      How long before the company making the robots to traverse the difficult terrains autonomously, point fire fighting equipment at fires and put out fires is "conveniently repurposed" to drop into war zones and autonomously find and extinguish an opposing force's robots, vehicles and soldiers?

    • Considering the high costs (and increasing) of fighting fires any aid that helps is a good thing. Less losses, and less costs passed to us.

  • Remembering Target (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MilenCent ( 219397 )

    I remember how Target's use of "AI Camera" resulted in people being falsely accused of shoplifting.

  • There are already low-res IR satellites that don't potentially violate people's privacy en masse.
  • Aha... lost dogs, wildfires... what other fake reasons can they make up? You can not raise your voice against these, because then you are the evil guy. F*** your ai cameras.

    • It's easy to support AI camera systems watching for wildfires and still oppose them elsewhere, because the use cases are very different and the argument is easy to make that they differ.

      • It's easy to support AI camera systems watching for wildfires and still oppose them elsewhere, because the use cases are very different and the argument is easy to make that they differ.

        The argument is easy to make, yes.
        But the legislation isn't.

        What are some examples of this kind of thing where the scope did not creep beyond its original purpose?
        Now how many examples are there where the scope does creep and never return to its original dimensions?
        And after watching the past 16 months, do you continue to trust our rulers to operate within morally/legally sound boundaries when beefing up their surveillance/control systems?

  • Blanket surveillance and militarization concerns aside (and WOOF, that was quite a push), a fundamental problem with early detection and suppression of wildfires in the American Southwest is that the American Southwest is SUPPOSED to burn down every decade or so. Not to kink-shame, but redwoods reportedly can't even reproduce without being set on fire first. Every time you suppress a fire, the whole works gets a little bit more flammable. I can't help but wonder if pouring a canteen on a thousand piddlin
  • We did a similar thing in 2006, except the cameras fed to a central desk at a fire station monitoring a mix of farms/forest/residential. The software would flag all smoke detections and since there was a lot of residential and informal settlements an operator would verify it was not an intentional fire. So, this is not a new product but a new marketing spin on a very old product.
  • California has hundreds if not 1,240 cameras watching... ...the most densely populated areas. What happens in reality is that a fire gets called in by a human before a camera sees smoke. What does not seem to happen is putting cameras on every other transmission tower in unpopulated areas.

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