Can AI Save the Bay?

Probably not, but it will keep a lot of Bay Scientists playing with their computers. At the Bay Journal, Scientists weigh Chesapeake Bay cleanup benefits, challenges posed by AI

Artificial intelligence has the potential to be a “transformative tool” in understanding the Chesapeake Bay and improving restoration efforts, according to a recent report by Bay scientists.

AI helps sort and interpret immense amounts of data, allowing products like high-resolution maps to track land use change in detail never before possible, according to the state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). It has the potential to more precisely manage nutrients on farmlands, assess cleanup progress and help prioritize efforts.

But AI has triggered increased construction of massive data centers that have potentially negative consequences on the environment. They often rely on power sources that spew pollutants into the air, draw billions of gallons of water from the region’s aquifers and rivers, and create massive concrete footprints that can spell doom for local stream health.

Those tradeoffs were apparent at the committee’s virtual meeting in April, focused on the opportunities for AI to help the Bay restoration.

The committee, which issued a report about the transformative potential of AI for the Bay last year, began its April meeting with a disclaimer: “STAC acknowledges the many concerns about ethical and environmental impacts of AI usage, including water and energy usage, land use and potential community impacts.”

The statement, as much as anything, highlights the mixed-bag AI creates. It is already used effectively to improve forecasts of storm surges, surface waves, saltwater intrusion, oxygen levels in the Bay and harmful algae blooms.

It’s essential in sorting through the huge amounts of satellite imagery used to create high-resolution watershed maps, which are used to assess land use changes and predict future ones — all of which can aid decision making and accelerate environmental efforts.

TL/DR. AI is great for scientists to use to try to study the Bay, but the new data centers being proposed so the  hoi polloi can use it to are bad for the Bay.