Recent advances in AI have fundamentally changed how we predict the weather, making forecasting cheaper, faster and better — we can now track even the most unusual weather event with almost pinpoint accuracy. Such accuracy has never been more urgent. With climate change making weather more extreme, unpredictable and dangerous, knowing how much rain a storm may bring, or how long a drought could last, can be a matter of life and death. In this episode, we explore this quiet revolution in forecasting, why this knowledge must also drive policy change and, in the face of growing water shortages, how AI is helping us tap an unexpected new source.

Featured in this episode:

Pedram Hassanzadeh is an associate professor in the department of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and director of the AI for Climate Initiative at the Data Science Institute.

Catherine Nakalembe is an assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s department of geographical sciences, founder of the Xylem Lab and the Africa program director for NASA Harvest.

Tatiana Estevez is the founder and CEO of Permalution, a startup working on fog water collection technology and climate adaptation solutions.

Further reading:

Forecasting the future: The role of artificial intelligence in transforming weather prediction and policy

Designing probabilistic AI monsoon forecasts to inform agricultural decision-making

AI can predict disaster, but it can’t save you

Seeds of impact: Catherine Nakalembe’s trailblazing path

Fight Canada’s water shortage with fog

Permalution: transforming fog into water for climate adaptation
The end of the European summer

Subscribe to Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World here. And below, find a transcript to “The coming storm.”

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Episode summary: The head-spinning ascent of AI is a story of scientific innovation, but it’s also, fundamentally, a story about money. Between 2013 and 2024, AI netted about U.S.$1.6 trillion of global corporate and private investment; it’s estimated that by the end of this year that number will reach U.S.$2.5 trillion. How this massive investment is transforming — and will transform — the way we live and work is a matter of fierce debate and great uncertainty. One person at the centre of this technological and economic maelstrom is Pillar VC’s Leah Morris. She’s the executive director of Pillar’s Encode: AI for Science fellowship, which provides AI researchers the time, freedom and resources to build meaningful, game-changing solutions. In this bonus episode, she discusses how new technologies are exacerbating economic inequality, the enduring value of human judgment and how the AI investment landscape is too often, in her words, “bullshit in a bull ring.”

Featured in this episode:

Leah Morris is executive director of the Encode: AI for Science fellowship at Pillar VC. She was previously a senior director at Radical Ventures, where she oversaw the firm’s responsible AI strategy and managed research partnerships. Her background includes economic AI research at the University of Toronto and experience in global health and security with the United Nations and through nonprofit work in Jamaica and South Africa.

Further reading:

The next great divergence: Why AI may widen inequality between countries

The man behind AlphaGo thinks AI is taking the wrong path

How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

Universal basic income, the utopia idea resurging in Silicon Valley

How AI is transforming scientific discovery while keeping humans at the centre

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Thanks largely to advances in AI, robots are now capable of things never before possible: picking delicate vegetables, moving heavy goods deftly around a warehouse, making pizzas. But there are still limitations to even the most sophisticated and expensive machines. Replicating human dexterity, for example, remains a surprisingly fiendish challenge. While some experts talk about an imminent “ChatGPT moment” for robotics — one that has the potential to completely transform society — it’s not quite clear when this moment will arrive, or what it will mean when it does. In this episode, we explore how new robot technology is reshaping society, the economy and our understanding of what it means to be human.

Featured in this episode:

Stefan Glibetic is the founder and CEO of Mycionics, which builds robotic harvesting solutions for the global mushroom industry.

Robert Brooks is the founder and CEO of ForceN, which manufactures joints, fingers, wrists and ankles for surgical, industrial and defence/aerospace robots.

Tarek Rahim is the co-founder and CEO of Mirsee Robotics, which specializes in building humanoid robots for various commercial sectors.

Nick Dechev is an associate professor in the faculty of engineering at the University of Victoria. He is also the founder of and chief technology officer at the Victoria Hand Project, a non-profit providing affordable prosthetic devices around the world.

Jason Millar is an associate professor in the faculty of engineering at the University of Ottawa. He is also the Canada Research Chair in ethical engineering of artificial intelligence and robotics and director of the Canadian Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Ethical Design Lab (CRAiEDL).

Further reading:

New research suggests consistency, not complexity, is the key to teaching robots dexterity

The $6 billion Chinese startup trying to build hands for every robot

How physical AI is reshaping robotics today — and what comes next

Ten ways humanoid robots are about to change everyday life

Beyond bionics: How the future of prosthetics is redefining humanity

Subscribe to Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World here. And below, find a transcript to “Degrees of freedom.”

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.