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00:00How could technology have played a role in preventing the virus from ever happening in the first place or becoming a pandemic in the first place. Viruses begin to spread. It's all about getting information quickly. So your earlier we could have figured out how to track what was happening and seeing where it was spreading and had the test to go after it. We could have maybe done a better job to figure out what strategies we could have used. I think in reality whenever you get a disease like this you can't ever really stop the whole thing. But we certainly could have found in hindsight ways that we could have used technology to track and maybe mitigate it to some extent . Now you've been highlighting a I in quantum computing. How if they had been better integrated into our systems or more advanced. Could that have helped. Well I think particularly on the ISE side as we find ways to actually see patterns ahead of time on disease spread in this case or other other patterns that maybe we couldn't see as people because we can't look at that much data at once that actually can give us sort of the red alert or the flag that says hey you should look at this. It still takes a person to come in then and analyze that to figure out what's really happening which is exactly one of the things we like with a ISE the ability to see a broader picture first and then bring in a person with an expert to take action on it . So do you think that A.I. quantum computing and this kind of technology could ultimately replace human decision making in a pandemic. No definitely not. I think one of the things we're finding that's really great about using let's say our quantum . Is this sort of augmentation or assisting. All right. So the reality is it can do things at a scale a person couldn't do to collect that information up. But it still requires that a person who understands what's the goal or the ethics what are the issues I'm trying to really solve. What's all the rest of the context out there to take that information use their own expertise to make the actual decisions which will be critical . So where's research leading in this field and what are your predictions for the next five to 10 years. It's all five that we did this year for the five and five were around how we could accelerate scientific discovery to help with problems with climate change and covered uncovered. What we really focused on was could we find ways to even repurpose current drugs to actually treat the disease because usually a disease takes 10 years to get a new drug out billions of dollars. But oftentimes the drug we use today might actually be safe and be able to actually help with coping. So how can using A.I. to search through all that kind of data find potential candidates. We even have a couple of groups now that have around the world started to find candidates that they could use for reuse. Now when you talk about climate change how can technology help there . I know that you're also looking at how technology can be involved in sustainability. Here in California we've been facing these devastating wildfires horrible air quality all along the West Coast. How could technology help. Yeah I've been suffering from that as well. In San A here I feel I think one of things we're looking at are sort of all aspects. One is how do we do a better job of carbon capture. So can we find materials that could capture CO2 from the air maybe even take that CO2 and use it for something else like plastic production or something. What are ways we can make more sustainable batteries. Can we get some of the things that are in batteries that heavy metals out that is very important for renewable energy and electric cars. That's going to be an increasing problem. Can we find ways to make materials that go into our computer chips more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. All these little things add up to make a difference . It seems like we're at a turning point when it comes to battery development. We've been following Tesla's battery day for example and the announcements they recently made. Is that the best way to put it that we're kind of on the cusp of a big change in how batteries and renewable energy could impact our lives. I think we are on the cusp. I think that we obviously have got a lot of good production going and now a lot of our power can be generated by renewables. But the reality is the sun's always shining and the wind's not always blowing. So having good storage requires really large very energy dense batteries that are very safe. The technology we've been looking at not only remove the cobalt and nickel which have concerns from a resource perspective and an environmental impact perspective also turned out to be a safer battery had less less chance of flaming up a similar energy density power density and could actually charge faster. So sometimes I'm looking for something. I was actually gonna be better for the environment . It turned out we came with a better battery as well. So how do we make sure that batteries are used to their full potential . Where do you see the applications whether it's in electric cars or elsewhere. Yes I think clearly electric cars when people are very focused on and we don't want to have that range anxiety . But I think if you think about it in the Noble Energy space you have solar panels in those places where there's lots of sun . You want to be able to store a really large battery packs that extra energy that redistribute on the grid as necessary. We're going to people's homes and we've had a few power outages as well during the recent fires and things. If you were able to store a battery energy there from your solar power ahead of time that could really be very useful if it's large enough that you run your home. And when it comes to sustainability do you think other companies are doing enough. I think. Could do more. I think you know the reality is everything we do we'd like to see the product cycle be taking into account the sustainability aspect from the beginning. I think for a lot of us we make the product first and we think about how to make sure it has less impact. I think we're discovering that if if you really use some technologies like I actually think about it ahead of time you might find a better way to go forward from the beginning .

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How Technology Can Help Save the Climate, Stop Covid

Jeff Welser, vice president of research at International Business Machines Corp., discusses the company's five primary areas of focus over the next five years with Bloomberg's Emily Chang. (Source: Bloomberg)

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