AI and its Computing Landscapes: Water Data, Climate Control, and Agricultural Technology

Artificial Intelligence and automated decision-making systems rely on what I term ‘computing landscapes’ for data accumulation, algorithmic experimentation, and decision-making applications. Water data is a valuable information source extracted from these landscapes.

In this talk, I map out three dimensions to AI and the environment: algorithmic water policy, weather modification, and agricultural technology that root in a much longer history of creating and managing water data. In recent response to the climate crisis, automated water management and agricultural systems are on the uptick, revealing a growing disjuncture between who has access to these information sources and those most at risk under climate change.