Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Sees Hope For Greener Skies With AI-Driven Flight Paths

An analyst from Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management sees AI reducing aviation industry’s negative affects on the environment.

What Happened: Analyst Sam Korus took the example of Google GOOG GOOGL and American Airlines AAL to drive forth his point. American Airlines flew 70 test flights armed with an AI algorithm developed by Google and reduced condensation trails by 54%.

“In our view, the algorithm could integrate into existing flight operations without significant upfront costs,” the analyst said.

Condensation trails or contrails are formed when airplanes fly through layers of humidity. At night, certain contrails can trap heat within Earth’s atmosphere, causing global warming.

Google developed an AI algorithm to create forecast maps for locations where these contrails might be formed so pilots could avoid it. A group of pilots at American Airlines flew about 70 flights over six months making small changes in flight route based on these AI predictions. Pilots who used AI predictions made 54% less contrails as compared to those who didn’t. But re-routing to avoid the creation of contrails also burned 2% additional fuel.

Why It Matters: According to Google, contrails could be avoided at scale for around $5-25/ton CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) using the algorithm. It believes it would be a cost-effective warming-reduction measure with further improvements.

As per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2022 report, contrail clouds account for about 35% of aviation’s global warming impact.

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