TIME Magazine: AI Is Helping Fight Wildfires Before They Start

"Knowledge of the fuel sources in a wildfire's path is critical to predicting its movements. An area of dry brush will burst into flames when lit, while a well-watered golf course can halt a fire in its tracks. To that end, WIFIRE's artificial intelligence software examines high-resolution satellite imagery to predict the combustibility of the vegetation surrounding a fire, then incorporates that information into its predictions. Because factors like wind and precipitation can also affect a fire, real-time weather information is fed into the system as well. (A separate program, which serves as an early warning system, identifies smoke plumes from cameras high on mountainsides, no easy feat in images often containing fog or clouds.)"