There are several challenges in geophysics embedded in Earth’s crust—and an AI (artificial intelligence) project aims to help solve them. The University of California Office of the President has funded a $6 million, three-year initiative led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, called the Geophysicist.AI project.
A combination of civil and environmental engineers, geoscientists, mathematicians, and computer scientists at UC campuses in Riverside, San Diego, Berkeley and Santa Cruz will help on the project. Also, participating will be scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Here is how this can help:
- Stimulate advances in harnessing sustainable geothermal energy.
- Sequester carbon dioxide underground.
- Provide safe, long-term storage of spent nuclear fuels.
Ultimately, the goal here is to create a scalable AI ecosystem that integrates large language and physics-informed models with massive amounts of real-world data to solve subsurface challenges. Another goal is to use AI and machine learning to predict induced seismicity. It is certainly a project to keep an eye on in the future.