Matt Brittin, president of EMEA at Google, claimed AI can be a catalyst in the battle against climate change, as he unveiled a feature designed to help users and authorities mitigate environmental issues.
In a keynote at a sustainability event in London, Brittin said AI can assist governments, businesses and citizens by providing the tools to make systemic change, including fighting a climate crisis.
He explained AI enabled Google to advance its operations, including in providing models to improve power efficiency in its data centres and deploying a carbon-intelligent platform to perform computing tasks.
Brittin announced the company’s new AI tool, a notification system developed in partnership with NGO Global Heat Health Information Network which he said can help “people and local authorities prepare for, and combat heat waves”.
It will offer detailed information around heat waves to users searching related keywords, providing them with forecasts and health advice.
Brittin also announced an extension of Google’s Tree Canopy air quality AI mapping tool to 250 cities globally, after initial deployments in the US.
Google’s moves advance an AI push which also involved it injecting $300 million into related start-up Anthropic to help it develop a digital assistant to rival conversational platform ChatGPT.
