The Alberta government has a new toy in their toolbox when it comes to fighting wildfires — AI.."Since 2022, our wildfire managers and duty officers use a new modelling system with an AI component. This wildfire occurrence prediction system determines the probability of a new wildfire starting in a given area," says the Forestry and Parks department statement.."The wildfire occurrence prediction system can analyze granular data sources to give staff members more specific insights about the regions they make decisions for.""Trained on a massive amount of historical fire data, the tool makes predictions based on regional weather and forest conditions. It also integrates data on global carbon emissions and the day of the week to learn correlations between wildfires, climate change and human behaviour."It's been a particularly bad wildfire season in Alberta.Since January 1, Alberta Wildfire has responded to 1,034 wildfires that have burned 2,263,720 hectares.There are currently 82 active wildfires in the Forest Protection Area of Alberta. Up-to-date statistics on the wildfire season can be found on the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard.
