logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
12m 36s

Can AI help solve the climate crisis? | ...

TED
About this episode

"AI can be a transformational tool in our fight against climate change," says Sims Witherspoon, a leader at the AI research lab Google DeepMind. Using wind power as her case study, she explains how powerful neural networks can help us better predict Earth's changing ecosystems and accelerate the breakthrough science needed to create a carbon-free energy supply.

Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Yesterday
Why AI is unlikely to become conscious | Anil Seth
We see consciousness in AI the same way we see faces in clouds, says neuroscientist Anil Seth. He explores the all-too-human tendency to project inner life onto machines that are brilliant mimics, not sentient beings, and gives a definitive answer to the urgent question: Will AI ... Show More
17m 6s
Apr 30
Reimagining traditional architecture for modern needs | Riyad Joucka
Architect Riyad Joucka believes your home should be a mirror of who you are. Using 3D printing and ancient architectural wisdom, he's designing efficient, personal homes that respond to context, climate and culture without sacrificing character. He makes the case that we should s ... Show More
10m 6s
Apr 29
The "hot shot rule" to help you become a better leader | Kat Cole (re-release)
Confidence doesn’t come before action — it comes from taking action, says business leader Kat Cole, who worked her way up from waitress to CEO of a global health company. She presents a simple yet powerful practice called the “hot shot rule” to help you step into a leadership min ... Show More
9m 49s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Can AI help solve the climate crisis? | Sims Witherspoon
“AI can be a transformational tool in our fight against climate change," says Sims Witherspoon, a leader at the AI research lab Google DeepMind. Using wind power as her case study, she explains how powerful neural networks can help us better predict Earth's changing ecosystems an ... Show More
15m 5s
Aug 2021
How can smart tech tackle climate change?
<p>Humans are responsible for emitting over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year – and we all know that we need to reduce that figure to prevent devastating climate change. Listener Saugat wonders whether smart technology and artificial intelligence ... Show More
37m 49s
Apr 2024
AI2’s Christopher Bretherton Discusses Using Machine Learning for Climate Modeling - Ep. 220
Can machine learning help predict extreme weather events and climate change? Christopher Bretherton, senior director of climate modeling at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, or AI2, explores the technology’s potential to enhance climate modeling with AI Podcast hos ... Show More
32m 29s
Nov 2021
Geoengineering The Planet
Even with the best efforts, it will be decades before we see any change in global temperatures through our mitigation efforts. Given the pace of global heating and the time lag before our emissions reductions have any impact, scientists are exploring additional ways of reducing g ... Show More
27m 23s
Oct 2020
A Radical Approach to Climate Change
Could altering the Earth’s atmosphere to reflect back some of the sun’s rays be a solution to climate change? It would likely decrease global temperatures, but it might lead to climate wars. Humanity might become “addicted” to it for survival. And ultimately, would this technolog ... Show More
58m 5s
Feb 2022
TED Climate: Woolly pigs, high tech and other ingenious ways to take carbon out of the air | Gabrielle Walker
What do woolly pigs have to do with climate change? They're part of a vital, ingenious and evolving strategy to take carbon out of the sky and store it safely -- in trees, soils, the ocean, buildings, rocks and deep underground. Every carbon removal approach takes some combinatio ... Show More
12m 3s
Aug 2021
Brainstorm
<p>In this episode of Tech Tonic, we ask whether AI's potential in the fight against the climate crisis justifies the massive amounts of energy it takes to run these systems. The computing power required to train AI concerns some researchers, who have built a calculator to count ... Show More
21m 2s
Oct 2021
Smart tech and climate change
Could AI be used to help fight against climate change? 
6m 12s
May 2022
Cutting the carbon footprint of supercomputing in scientific research
Science benefits enormously from supercomputing, which enables researchers to process vast amounts of data and conduct complex simulations. But these machines can be notorious energy guzzlers, with the largest supercomputers consuming as much power as a small city. In this episod ... Show More
36m 49s
Nov 2021
TED Climate: How to make radical climate action the new normal | Al Gore
A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try, says Nobel laureate Al Gore. In this inspiring and essential talk, Gore shares examples of extreme climate events (think: fires, floods and ... Show More
15m 34s