New Delhi, February 16 Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a vital role in disaster management, especially in minimizing losses, but it would need a legal and policy framework for these new-age technologies to be relied upon by officials at the ground level who would make decisions for preventive actions, a top official of UNDRR said on Monday.
Addressing a session at the AI Impact Summit, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Chief Intergovernmental Interagency cooperation and Partnerships Branch Sujit Mohanty said that India has done a lot of work in using AI for predictive analysis in disaster management.
"This entire technology space is really growing well, growing fast... You are seeing solutions that were not possible earlier...," he said, citing the use of AI in predicting and analyzing disaster risks.
However, he said, "At the same time, I think we should be mindful that, in the end, is it really helping those who are there to make decisions about people's lives and their livelihoods, their economic assets, to make those decisions, to really see that the damage due to disasters has been reduced?"
While AI has a lot of potential in terms of solutions and "brilliant apps are coming up," Mohanty said, "But how do you scale it? How do you bring it to those who are making the decisions, like the district magistrate sitting in a district where he has to make a decision on when to evacuate, how many to evacuate, and where to evacuate, and all based on what?"
Although there are apps, but a district collector or a district magistrate cannot just go on to any app and make a decision based on these unless there is legal backing and enabling policies.
"Unless that is done, those glorious apps will sit there as dashboards, and those who are making those key decisions will not be able to do that," Mohanty asserted.
He, however, said that India has shown a lot in terms of using AI in disaster management, citing the example of the India Meteorological Department using AI for predictive analysis.
"But there are also countries that will not be able to do that," he said, adding that India's frugal AI can be taken to other countries to support them.
Mohanty noted that globally, there is a loss of about USD 200 billion every year due to disasters.
Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority Vice Chairman V K Sharma said that many governments, including the Government of India, have already accepted the changes due to the development of new technologies.
"Earlier, the focus was on relief, but now new technologies have enabled accurate predictions that have helped minimize damage," he added.
