Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, and Tim Sheehee, a Republican from Montana, recently introduced bipartisan laws that improve and utilize national maritime and air stewardship artificial intelligence to better predict and respond to extreme weather and protect communities from a more growing scope.
Tame extreme weather and wildfire behaviour aims to:
Improves accuracy and timeliness in weather, water and spatial predictions, and improves the effective dissemination of important information. Strengthen analytical ability to inform resource deployments to respond and mitigate harm from weather, water, wildfires and space weather hazards through mandated exploration and use of artificial intelligence by federal agencies. We will strengthen public-private partnerships to accelerate the adoption and outcome of the use of artificial intelligence to address and mitigate such harm. Strengthen public-private partnerships in highly technical, high-risk, high-remuneration areas related to weather, water, wildfires and space weather forecasts.
“Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, more serious and deadly, and AI can become a powerful tool in saving lives and livelihoods,” Schatz, a senior member of the Senate, Science and Transportation Committee, said in a release on the proposed law. “Our bill leverages AI’s immense processing and forecasting capabilities to improve weather forecasting and help communities prepare and respond quickly to extreme weather events.”
The tame extreme weather and wildfire laws will lead to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Regime below.
Develop a global US weather dataset to train AI prediction models. Partnering with the private and academic departments on AI weather and wildfire forecasting, we will innovate new AI weather and wildfire products and applications. It supports integration of AI weather models into predictions that Americans use and rely on.
“Extreme weather and wildfires cause hundreds of billions of dollars of economic impact and harm and harm each year, but the government’s response to wildfires, especially for decades, has remained unchanged,” Sheehee said in the announcement. “By incorporating cutting-edge artificial intelligence into modelling of forecasting and disaster threat prediction, we have the ability to know where, how big, how big, how big, how big, and how the weather will be, and we can take precautions long before the impacts come into effect.”
In 2023 alone, the US experienced a record 28 disasters, causing nearly 500 deaths and at least $1 billion in damages each, including property and crops.
This includes the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire that destroyed the historic Maui community and killed more than 100 people.
Tame extreme weather and wildfire laws help to better prepare the country for extreme weather and wildfires by providing forecasts that are improved by integrating traditional weather models with AI weather models.
AI weather models currently rely on datasets produced and maintained by the European Centre medium distance weather forecast. Bill is increasing the security of AI weather models by requesting the development of US weather datasets.
The Tame Extreme Weather and Wildfires Act is also co-hosted by Senator Peter Welch of Vermont and Democrats, who co-hosts Ben Railhan in New Mexico.
A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Scott Franklin, a Florida Republican.
“Extreme weather is only getting more severe and more frequent. You need to use all the tools at your disposal, including artificial intelligence, to save lives and livelihoods,” Welch said. “By requiring federal agencies to use AI in proactive ways, such as increasing grid elasticity and improving weather forecasts, this bill will allow them to better predict and respond to extreme weather events and mitigate their impact.”
Franklin added that by encouraging American innovation and integrating federal, academia and private sector efforts, the bill ensures that it can respond quickly to natural disasters at home without relying on foreign data.
“Now is the time for transformative innovation and leadership to prevent future tragedy and quickly and effectively protect American families, homes and communities,” Sheehee said.
