Make information useful, save the world: Iris.ai for Climate Change

Ami Defesche , ,

Recently, the World Economic Forum put out an article titled “12 ways the tech sector can help save the climate in 12 years,” featuring various ways that tech companies can make a dent in the growing climate crisis. One of these solutions: “Make information more useful.”

We live in a world where an estimated 6,800 scientific papers are published every day (source). Yet, navigating such a huge influx of data and information is nearly impossible for any one human being or even a team of human beings. No wonder there is rampant misinformation, conflicting claims, and confusion about how best to tackle such an immense and multi-faceted challenge as climate change.

Enter, Artificial Intelligence. Now that we have the technological ability to generate and store so much new knowledge, companies like Iris.ai are now focused on training artificial intelligence to tackle all of that information and make it digestible for researchers, especially when time is of the essence as it is with the climate crisis.

The first challenge at hand for any researcher is to determine what information exists on a given topic. For example, this list of the most cited papers on climate change. These 10 papers are a start, sorted to the top of the pile based on the number of other researchers who have declared them relevant through their use of the data in their own papers. However, there are hundreds if not thousands of papers related to these 10 that could present new, valuable information, that is only ever seen by a small handful of people (source).

Using Iris.ai’s exploration tool, we built maps of existing open-access knowledge based on 5 of the 10 most cited papers, revealing 1,271 other papers directly related to the concepts within. 1,271 papers that may help us further flesh out existing findings and come up with new solutions faster.

View the full maps:

What to do with 1,271 papers, though? Now that the knowledge is found, we’re still humans with an immense processing challenge ahead of us, i.e. reading all of those papers.

The same algorithms that helped to discover those papers can help to narrow them down as well. With tools like the Iris.ai focus tool, you can step behind the curtain, as it were, to drive the AI herself and systematically narrow down that overwhelming list, into the handful of papers that are most highly related to your specific field of research.

What you end up with is a list of highly curated scientific articles, clear from the limitations and biases of keywords or impact factor, and available to consume in less than 20% of the time it would normally take to compile such a list through traditional search tools.

Through this process, tech companies and researchers across the globe can more easily understand the state of the climate and move toward clear plans for action even faster than before, diving into the World Economic Forums other 11 suggestions fully informed and ready to make change.

If you’d like to learn more about Iris.ai and how she can help you or your company create positive change, join us at one of our free monthly webinars to get hands-on and try out the tools for yourself.