WORLD CHANGING IDEAS

FROM THE TINY SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND OF NIUE то THE BUSTLING STREETS OF PARIS, FROM GUINEA TO SAN FRANCISCO, PEOPLE ARE DEVISING SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD'S GREATEST CHALLENGES.

-  ADELE PETERS , SHALENE GUPTA , ELISSAVETA M. BRANDON

USING AI TO HELP REDUCE AIRLINE EMISSIONS

GOOGLE

THE THIN CLOUDS THAT STREAK BEHIND AIRPLANES, called contrails, are a sizable source of global warming, responsible for more than a third of aviation's climate impact. But slightly changing a plane's flight path can help avoid the phenomenon, which happens when hot exhaust mixes with cold, humid air.

At Google, researchers are using artificial intelligence to help predict where contrails will form so that pilots can adjust course. In a six-month test on dozens of American Airlines flights between 2022 and early 2023, the approach helped reduce contrails by 54%.

While redirecting planes uses a little more fuel, the climate benefit far outweighs the extra CO2 emissions.

The change would cost airlines little. Eventually, many airplanes will shift to sustainable aviation fuel, which can both reduce contrails and cut CO2 emissions, but altering flight paths can happen immediately.

As Google continues to tweak the AI to reduce contrails even more, it's running additional tests with Southwest Airlines and with Eurocontrol, the organization that manages air traffic in Europe. The data will soon be incorporated into software that helps pilots optimize flight paths and could be deployed within a few years.

"It's an example of how we can drive a large, costeffective impact in a time horizon that is much shorter than people ever thought would be possible in the climate space," says Juliet Rothenberg, the product lead for Google's climate AI team. While the growth of AI poses climate risks of its own-it has to be managed to avoid surging energy use-the tech can also play a role in climate action in multiple ways. The contrails work is one of several projects at Google (see box at right) that harness artificial intelligence to cut emissions and respond to climate disasters.

4 MORE GOOGLE AI INITIATIVES