Our New Practice: AI for Climate and Sustainability

The Institute for Experiential AI (EAI) is thrilled to announce the creation of a new practice: AI for Climate and Sustainability (AI4CaS). Part of a joint effort with the Roux Institute at Northeastern University, the practice aims to develop sophisticated new approaches to climate risk, resilience, and sustainability with the use of AI and data science tools. AI4CaS will be led by Auroop Ganguly, who in addition to being a core faculty member at EAI, is a distinguished professor at the Northeastern University College of Engineering and director of the Sustainability & Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab).

The first major engagement of the AI4CaS practice will be to participate in the Risk Reduction Hub event, to be held by the United Nations (UN) Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on May 17 in New York City. Ganguly, along with nine researchers from the SDS Lab, will discuss and present case studies on the use of AI for predicting and mitigating disaster risk.

“We’re honored to participate in the Risk Reduction Hub at such a crucial time for the use of technology in response to the climate and sustainability challenge,” said Ganguly. “Addressing these complex challenges will require continued innovation in advanced computational science, engineering, and data solutions in combination with existing physics, biogeoscience, and technosocial principles, which we’re spearheading in the AI for Climate and Sustainability practice.”

Adhering to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), EAI and its climate practitioners advocate for methodologies that minimize disaster risk and reduce losses in lives, livelihoods, and health. Fusing these development goals with an emerging Responsible AI framework will constitute a significant portion of AI4CaS’s early activities.

As extreme weather events become more common, AI’s next-level powers of prediction will prove critical for both public policy and private enterprise. In his new role, Auroop hopes to define the value of AI in a changing climate, where traditional insurance models and risk assessments begin to break down. And together with the Roux Institute, EAI hopes its new climate practice will serve as a model for sustainable AI practices worldwide.

Learn more about Ganguly’s research and reach out with questions about the practice.