Cleaner Tech
AI Could Give Coral a Fighting Chance in Rapidly Warming Oceans
Scientists are working on a unique solution to speed up coral restoration. But it may not be enough to save reefs.
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Robots, 3D printers and other machinery fill a building on a pier in San Francisco. It seems an unlikely place to save coral reefs from climate change.
But over the past four years, an Australian coral scientist has been collaborating with technologists at the industrial design software company Autodesk Inc. to develop artificial-intelligence-powered robots that can automate coral restoration. Doing so could speed the rehabilitation of reefs as well as the transplanting of corals to places where they’d have a better chance of surviving in a rapidly warming ocean.