Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in every corner of everyone’s lives. No matter what screen you turn on, there is an AI feature that tries to simplify your life with its summarizations and generated images. That help doesn’t have to be just for people; it can also be used to save the environment.

Recognizing this potential, the Barcelona-based nonprofit Earth05 has begun applying AI to address the ongoing water crisis. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 2.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. To address this challenge, Earth05 is working toward its goal of improving the lives of 500 million people by 2030.

Earth05

Earth05, launched in January 2024 at the World Economic Forum. Its mission is to increase water access to millions of people globally. The organization aims to achieve this by using AI to predict water shortages, detect leaks and contaminants, optimize irrigation and power smart delivery systems.

Earth05’s ultimate goal is to prevent rising poverty and support lower-middle-income economies and indigenous communities. It aims to equip these groups for immediate challenges and long-term shifts in the age of AI. Earth05 believes combining AI with water conservation can create powerful solutions for the planet and its people.

Earth05’s AI could help predict water fluctuation patterns in countries that need it most, which is becoming harder to do without the assistance of AI. Such progress would be vital for nations like Mexico, Brazil, India, China and other countries that obtain water by desalination.

Aside from improving water access, Earth05 is committed to contributing to the United Nations (U.N.) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and many more.

The Solution

Earth05 is fighting to ensure the global water crisis does not worsen by integrating water, education and AI across all initiatives. New technology will allow the nonprofit to analyze future systems, from water consumption to the availability of water based on previous predicted weather reports. AI can make these predictions quickly and accurately, for the first time.

The charity’s goal has always been Return on Lives (ROL), the first metric to measure what truly matters in innovation. ROL tracks how investment dollars translate into real improvements in human lives, environmental health and future well-being. It directly shows how many people Earth05 has helped through its commitment to solving the global water crisis.

Final Remarks

Earth05 is using AI to create better weather reports and better irrigation systems. The research conducted by Earth05 will help find ways to access frozen water or water buried deep in the ground. AI can use its knowledge and large language models (LLMs) to help locate water for those in need and address the growing global water crisis.

– Avery Carl

Avery is based in Norfolk, NE, USA and focuses on Technology and Solutions for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons