December 30, 2020
Almost exactly 12 long, long months ago, I pontificated about the "roaring" decade to come for artificial intelligence. While 2020 was completely bonkers for so many reasons, all five areas where I predicted AI would have the most demonstrable impact — energy management ($8 billion in spending from 2020 to 2024), improving soil conditions ($360 million more for Indigo Ag), modeling climate risks (Microsoft’s "Planetary Computer," anyone?), protecting biodiversity and boosting supply chain traceability — continued to progress.
Against the odds of a pandemic-distracted economy, 2020 turned out to be a breakthrough year not just for practical applications of AI, but also for "climate tech" — solutions ranging from agtech to zero-emissions transportation to industrial decarbonization approaches.