Google has announced a new artificial intelligence model developed to predict the arrival of floods.
According to the company, AI can anticipate the arrival of a climate crisis up to seven days before it happens.
The results were published in the scientific journal Nature.
Floods are notoriously difficult to predict, as most rivers do not have flow gauges.
Google solved this problem by training machine learning models with all types of relevant data, including historical events, water levels, elevation, to generate localized maps and run "hundreds of thousands" of simulations in each location.
The technology aims to simulate the probability of an event occurring, so as to warn residents in advance.
This combination of techniques allowed the models to accurately predict floods, providing warning alerts, including through automatic notifications on Android smartphones, for 80 countries and a total of 460 million inhabitants.
The company, as stated in an official note, will continue to explore the "potential of machine learning to create better flood prediction models", collaborating with researchers and academics to develop the artificial intelligence-based approach.
Work that could result in a "flood forecasting platform" available on a global scale.
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