Google Is Using AI in Australia to Identify Climate-Resistant Kelp - Bloomberg

Google Is Using AI in Australia to Identify Climate-Resistant Kelp - Bloomberg

How Do You Breed Climate-Resistant Kelp? In Australia, It Starts with AI

Google and Australian scientists are using artificial intelligence to locate remnant giant kelp forests and identify genetic traits that can survive a warming ocean.
Giant kelp in Tasmania, Australia. Stefan Andrews, courtesy Great Southern Reef Foundation

Climate change has decimated giant kelp in Australia, but scientists are hoping that a Google artificial intelligence initiative can help revive the underwater forests crucial to ocean health and coastal economies.

Giant kelp forests help protect coastlines from storms, provide habitats for valuable species like abalone and lobster and serve as shelter for fur seals and other critters that attract tourists. But rising marine temperatures are depriving giant kelp of nutrients and unleashing invasions of kelp-eating urchins, wiping out 95% of the undersea forests off the Australian island state of Tasmania and curtailing them worldwide.