Bellwether is exploring how AI can help us better understand the physical world
Bellwether is X’s moonshot to understand and anticipate changes across our planet.
The Earth is constantly changing. From extreme weather events like wildfires and floods, to shifts in vegetation and urban landscapes, the world around us is variable and dynamic. What if we could develop a way to interpret and even foresee those changes?
Bellwether is harnessing AI to understand and predict the likelihood of change at any location. The team is building tools that will help humans respond more efficiently to natural disasters, mitigate the impact of catastrophic events, and better understand our planet’s behavior.
The Bellwether platform organizes and analyzes data about the natural world and the built environment, revealing new insights into how our planet has changed and what’s likely to happen in the future. Public and private sector partners are using the Bellwether platform to understand and adapt to shifts in the physical world.
Geospatial insights at lightning speed
Bellwether is pioneering a new way to apply AI to the physical world to understand more about how our planet changes every day. The Bellwether platform applies advanced simulation techniques to Earth observation data to unlock new insights into nature and the built environment.
As a fast growing class of data, Earth observation data is constantly changing, making it difficult to track, analyze, or understand. Bellwether’s cloud-based infrastructure uses the latest in compute, storage, and machine learning technology to aggregate vast quantities of this planetary data and quickly process it to uncover insights into risk, change detection, and more.
Public and private sector partners are using the Bellwether platform to predict the risk of severe weather like wildfires and floods, so that communities can be better prepared. After a disaster, first responders can use Bellwether’s aerial image geolocation to identify damage to critical infrastructure and deliver help more quickly.
Climate change is increasing the length of wildfire seasons, the severity of the fires, and the financial impact of these catastrophic events. Communities need new ways to assess, prepare, and protect themselves from this elevated threat.
Bellwether is developing a wildfire prediction tool to calculate fire risk for landscapes and structures up to five years into the future. The tool estimates the likelihood of wildfire at any location by analyzing petabytes of historical data about the environment in combination with thousands of risk drivers like tree species, wind qualities, and types of infrastructure. The team aims to help governments, businesses, and homeowners better understand and reduce wildfire risks, forging safer communities for everyone.
After a natural disaster, every minute counts—particularly when distributing relief. Bellwether has developed new technology to help first responders process images of damage in extreme weather events like wildfires and floods. Bellwether’s geospatial image-matching tool instantly compares new aerial images of a disaster scene with older aerial imagery to help responders identify critical infrastructure within seconds and begin rescue efforts.
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Bellwether is working with partners at the intersection of geospatial data, business and mission-critical problems. We’re looking for partners with novel, complicated, or seemingly intractable challenges related to planetary changes and the built environment.