The Center for Climate Environment and Health Seminar Series Presents Francesca Dominici

About this event

Please Join the Center for Climate, Environment and Health (CCEH) and the Data Science Institute (DSI) for a Seminar and Reception Featuring Francesca Dominici, Professor of Biostatistics, Population, an d Data Science and Director, Harvard Data Science Initiative.Seminar: 3:00pm-4:00pmReception: 4:00-5:00pmAI: Solution or Obstacle for Climate Adaptation?Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing research, education, and business-unlocking unprecedented opportunities across the environment, health, and beyond. In our lab, we're developing the first founda tion model for healthy adaptation to extreme weather events, pre-trained on the complete US Medicare dataset and enriched with nationwide Census, weather, and pollution data. This model enables powerful "what-if" scenario forecasting, using synthetic ground-truth data to validate counterfactual predictions and guide impactful climate actions. Yet this AI-driven progress comes at a cost: energy-hungry data centers power these advances, raising concerns about their environmental footprint and the paradox of AI's growing electricity demand in a world striving to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In this talk, I'll share insights from our work and explore AI's uncertain, double-edged role in the fight against climate change.strikethrough-none">Seminar: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Reception: 4:00-5:00pm

AI: Solution or Obstacle for Climate Adaptation?

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing research, education, and business-unlocking unprecedented opportunities across the environment, health, and beyond. In our lab, we're developing the first found ation model for healthy adaptation to extreme weather events, pre-trained on the complete US Medicare dataset and enriched with nationwide Census, weather, and pollution data. This model enables powerful "what-if" scenario forecasting, using synthetic ground-truth data to validate counterfactual predictions and guide impactful climate actions. Yet this AI-driven progress comes at a cost: energy-hungry data centers power these advances, raising concerns about their environmental footprint and the paradox of AI's growing electricity demand in a world striving to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In this talk, I'll share insights from our work and explore AI's uncertain, double-edged role in the fight against climate change.