ECI unveils AI for climate research

The Endowment for Climate Intelligence (ECI), a not-for-profit organization, has introduced a revolutionary tool in the ongoing battle against climate change by unveiling ‘ClimateGPT’. The innovative, open-source ensemble of AI models represents a pioneering solution, uniquely crafted to support a wide spectrum of stakeholders.

Developed by Erasmus.AI, in partnership with the Club of Rome in collaboration with AppTek’s AI and language research scientists and the EQTY Lab advanced cryptographic framework for responsible AI models, the ClimateGPT model is a product of over four years of dedicated work.

The launch of the ClimateGPT model occurred at the Al Dhafra Solar PV and is now accessible from Microsoft’s green energy data centers worldwide. ClimateGPT is powered by hydroelectric energy and it runs on Nvidia’s energy-efficient cloud GPUs, thereby reinforcing the commitment to sustainable practices.

According to Erasmus.AI, “ClimateGPT is trained to synthesize interdisciplinary research and break silos to form a holistic understanding of the impacts of climate change.”

It is trained on a vast dataset from the web and academia, including information on extreme weather and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The model has shown a tenfold improvement in efficiency on climate-specific tasks, matching the fluency performance of native multilingual language models with its cascading machine translation.

Climate-related challenges

ClimateGPT is specifically engineered to aid researchers, policymakers, and business leaders by providing advanced capabilities for making well-informed decisions in the complex landscape of climate-related challenges.

Now available on the Hugging Face platform, ClimateGPT offers a unique AI lineage explorer for transparency into the model’s training lifecycle. It has been fine-tuned to provide interdisciplinary knowledge in over 20 languages. The model is also designed for enterprise use, allowing for integrations into Salesforce and Databricks for swift deployment and fine-tuning.

Also Read: COP28: Challenge Launched to Harness Artificial Intelligence for Climate Action

Responsible AI

The ECI has taken significant measures to ensure the responsible utilization of ClimateGPT, setting a new standard for ethical AI practices. One such measure involves the implementation of a robust cryptographic framework that records the entire lifecycle of ClimateGPT on the Hedera blockchain. This framework ensures the integrity and traceability of the AI model, providing a transparent and auditable record of its development and usage.

Additionally, the ECI leverages IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and the Filecoin protocols to securely store and preserve data associated with ClimateGPT, further enhancing data integrity and accessibility.

In line with its commitment to responsible AI, the ECI recognizes the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives, particularly those of marginalized groups disproportionately affected by climate change.

The ECI’s status as a not-for-profit organization reinforces its dedication to transparency and the greater good. The organization reinvests commercial revenue generated from ClimateGPT back into research, allowing for continuous refinement and improvement of the model.

This commitment to ongoing research ensures that ClimateGPT remains at the forefront of climate intelligence by adapting to evolving challenges and incorporating the latest scientific findings.

Furthermore, the ECI provides free access to qualified researchers, enabling a broader community to benefit from ClimateGPT’s capabilities. By removing financial barriers, the ECI facilitates collaboration and knowledge sharing, encouraging a collective effort to address climate change. This open-access approach aligns with the organization’s commitment to transparency and its mission to drive positive change on a global scale.