November 12, 2024

After Working at Google and Facebook, She Started a Company to Fight Forest Fires. Now The Government Is Her Customer.

Allison Wolff cofounded Vibrant Planet because she realized how much of an impact technology could have on land management — a huge aspect of controlling forest fires.

Google is funding an AI-powered satellite constellation that will spot wildfires faster

September 16, 2024
Early next year, Google and its partners plan to launch the first in a series of satellites that together would provide close-up, frequently refreshed images of wildfires around the world, offering data that could help firefighters battle blazes more rapidly, effectively, and safely. The online search giant’s nonprofit and research arms have collaborated with the…

The Download: an AI safety hotline, and tech for farmers

September 16, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Why we need an AI safety hotline —Kevin Frazier is an assistant professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and senior research fellow in the Constitutional Studies Program at the University of…

Why we need an AI safety hotline

September 16, 2024
In the past couple of years, regulators have been caught off guard again and again as tech companies compete to launch ever more advanced AI models. It’s only a matter of time before labs release another round of models that pose new regulatory challenges. We’re likely just weeks away, for example, from OpenAI’s release of…