artificial intelligence will impact every aspect of emergency management
Pete Gaynor, former State of Rhode Island Emergency Management Director and FEMA national Administrator is conducting online training. Check out Leadership When It Matters Most In addition to that he is seeking input for a new book containing short essays. See below for what I sent him about technology and the coming AI revolution.
The AI Revolution
There have been significant technological events that have happened in the past that impacted Emergency Management. In sequence these were:
-Individual PCs
-Pagers
-Cell phones
-the Internet
-social media
And now, we are on the cusp of Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of the above changed how we did business in a simpler era.
Much of the above’s tech enhancements impacted “the physical” aspect for how we deliver services and coordinate, before, during and after a disaster.
We don’t fully understand the full impacts of AI that are coming, but the impact will go beyond a simple device or singular technology. More like the Internet that permeates all that we do. AI will be integrated into every aspect of our work. It Will go beyond implementing our thinking to actually being a tool that expands our abilities beyond the human mind. Perhaps it will provide a solution to passing on institutional knowledge to new workers in the profession of emergency management. All the learning that has been done in the past, lessons learned will not be forgotten, but automatically put in place in planning, warning, operations and recovery.
Making wise decisions on what aspect of AI we adopt will be key to our future. There will be no avoiding its impacts. The future is here now and will dominate our lives, personally and professionally. Harnessing the power of AI is not something to be fear but understood.
Like every technology, it can be used for good or evil. Look at the challenges that tech has already wrought today: the proliferation of pornography; misinformation; disinformation; cybersecurity challenges, etc. AI will play a role, for better or worse.
Don’t ignore the impacts that are here and what will dominate in the future. The AI future is closer than it looks!
