Tech Mahindra, GCAS launch AI challenge to combat climate change

Tech Mahindra, a digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services and solutions provider, announced its partnership with the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) to launch AI4Action, the first global Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenge aimed at delivering solutions for climate change.

The competition will challenge students from schools, colleges, universities and corporates in four major cities - San Francisco, New York, London and New Delhi - to come up with creative, AI-powered applications over the next year that will help tackle climate issues impacting the environment.

Tech Mahindra and GCAS will select ten finalists that can demonstrate tangible solutions for climate action. The overall winner must present an actionable idea that can be transformed into a real-world solution in time for the United Nations Climate Summit in 2019.

"This challenge mobilises some of the brightest minds, utilising the most advanced technology, to imagine - and pursue - solutions to the climate crisis that do not even exist today," said Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group, added, "The world has a historic opportunity to reboot future development with de-carbonised, climate compliant technologies. AI will be a powerful new tool in the fight against climate change and the more businesses that get behind this technology, the faster we can all transition to a cleaner, more energy efficient economy. Tech Mahindra's AI4Action initiative along with the global partners is a step in the right direction."

Tech Mahindra will supply an open source AI platform, Acumos, co-developed with AT&T and hosted by the Linux Foundation, that will allow AI4Action participants to build, share and deploy their AI-driven models for tackling climate change. Acumos will provide a collaborative marketplace for accessing, using and enhancing AI models and software. Developers and businesses will be able to use the platform to string together individual applications to create complex and sophisticated AI services.

Linux Foundation Executive Director, Jim Zemlin, said: "The potential uses for AI are limitless, and taking advantage of this rapidly advancing technology to address climate change - an issue that affects us all - is the best use case I can envision. The Linux Foundation is proud to support this important initiative. We are thrilled to see the Acumos AI project leveraged for such a positive purpose through the AI4Action challenge."

CP Gurnani, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tech Mahindra, added: "At Tech Mahindra we are committed to leveraging next gen technologies like Artificial Intelligence that will enable a sustainable society and environment. Our goal with AI4Action is to leverage the latest in artificial intelligence technology to combat climate change, one of the most pressing issues of our time. We are excited to collaborate with our partners and create the first ever global 'AI for Action' movement."

This announcement comes at the back of Tech Mahindra's commitment to create a sustainable future and mitigate the impact of climate change by harnessing next generation technologies like AI.