Technology
AN ARTIFICIAL intelligence can predict the location of landmines with up to 92 per cent accuracy, making removal of the deadly devices faster and more efficient, say researchers.
Some 60 countries around the world are contaminated by landmines and the weapons are being buried in war zones like Ukraine faster than they are disarmed elsewhere. Landmines are cheap to make, long-lasting and time-consuming to find and make safe, so they are a uniquely dangerous legacy of conflict. At least 4710 people were injured or killed by landmines and other abandoned explosives in 2022, with civilians making up 85 per cent of that figure, half of whom were children.
Martin Jebens at the International Committee of the Red Cross and his colleagues have created an AI tool they call DeskAId that can use satellite images to pinpoint the likely locations of landmines based on knowledge of where they have been found in previous conflicts, as well as the locations of roads, buildings and medical facilities. The AI learns patterns in the placement of mines in relation to these sites, which it uses to predict where they may have been laid when shown maps of new areas.
The system is being tested in Cambodia and the researchers are in talks to trial it in other regions (arXiv, doi.org/mxq7).
Those behind the project didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Andro Mathewson at The HALO Trust, anon-governmental organisation that works on landmine clearance, says AI has the potential to bolster removal efforts, although
