Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next.
Fires in the Los Angeles area have claimed more than 16,000 homes and other structures so far this year. Damages in January were estimated as high as $164 billion, making it potentially the worst natural disaster financially in U.S. history, according to Bloomberg.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service have reportedly been redirecting resources in recent months toward beneficial fires to reduce overgrowth.
AI enables fire departments to keep more eyes on controlled burns, making them safer and more accepted in communities, say industry experts.
This is just like cancer treatment, said Sonia Kastner, CEO and founder of Pano AI, based in San Francisco. You can do early screening, catch it when it's in phase one, and hit it with really aggressive treatment so it doesn't progress - what we've seen this fire season is proof that our customers across the country use our solution in this way.
San Ramon, California-based Green Grid, which specializes in AI for utility companies, in September alerted its customer at a Big Bear resort that a fire started in the San Bernardino National Forest was near, said Chinmoy Saha, the company's CEO. By acting early, the resort customer was able to prepare for the needed suppression measures for the fire before it reached and became uncontrollable, he said. Due to the favorable weather conditions, the fire did not reach the customer territory.
In the recent Los Angeles area fires, Saha said he had been in discussion with a customer seeking to bring AI to cameras located at the site of the now-devasted Eaton fire that has claimed 17 lives and more than 9,000 buildings.
If we had our system there, this fire could have been mitigated, said Saha. Early detection is the key, so the fire is contained and it doesn't become a catastrophic wildfire.
Aiding First Responders With Accelerated Computing Pano's service provides human-in-the-loop AI-driven fire detection and alerts that have enabled fire departments to act faster than from 911 calls, accelerating containment efforts, said Kastner.
The company's Pano Station uses two ultra-high-definition cameras mounted on top of mountains like a cell tower, rotating 360 degrees every minute to capture views 10 miles in all directions. Those images are transmitted to the cloud every minute, where AI models running on GPUs do inference for smoke detection.
Pano AI's Pano Station in Rancho Palos Verdes Pano has a daytime smoke detection model and a nighttime near infrared model looking for smoke, as well as a nighttime geostationary satellite model. It has a human in the loop for verifying the detections, and it can be confirmed using digital zoom and time-lapse imagery.
It trains on NVIDIA GPUs locally and runs inference on NVIDIA GPUs in the cloud.
Harnessing AI for Controlled Burns California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is carrying out prescribed fires, or controlled burns, to reduce dry vegetation that creates fuel for wildfires.
Controlled burns are necessary, and we didn't do a good job in California for the past 30 or 40 years, said Saha. Green Grid has deployed its trailer mounted AI camera sensors for monitoring fires and control burns before they go out of control.
Pano can be used by fire departments to monitor controlled burn zones with its AI-driven cameras to make sure that plumes of smoke don't appear outside of the permitted zone, maintaining safety.
The company has its cameras stationed at Rancho Palos Verdes, south of the recent Los Angeles area fires.
The area around the palisades fire was a very overgrown forest, and with a lot of dead fuels, so our hope is that there is going to be more focus on prescribed fires, said Kastner.
Embracing AI at Fire Departments for Faster Mitigation CAL FIRE is partnered with Alert California and UC San Diego for a network of cameras owned by investor-owned utilities, CAL FIRE, U.S. Forest Service and other U.S. Department of the Interior agencies.
Through that network, they've implemented an AI program that looks for new fire starts. It pans every two minutes and continuously updates, and Alert California has the most up-to-date information from this network.
If AI can enable fire departments to get to the scene of a fire when it's just a few acres, it's a lot easier to control than if it's 50 or more acres, said David Acuna, battalion chief at CAL FIRE, Clovis, California. This is particularly important in remote areas where it might take hours before a human sees and reports a fire, he added.
They use AI to determine if this looks like a new start, said Acuna. Now the key here is the program will then send an email to the relevant emergency command center, saying Hey, I think we spotted a new start, what do you think?' And it has to be verified by a human.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next.
