Hi everyone! Today I thought it would be
fun to bring you with me to the beach
because today we're talking about AI
lifeguards!
So what are AI lifeguards? What are some
of its uses?
What are the good things about it? What
are some risks? And what's the human side
of it?
Hi everyone, if it's your first time here,
I'm Alentina, a PhD candidate at the
University of Cambridge researching
organizational behavior and artificial
intelligence.
If you're interested in the human side
of things, please consider subscribing to
my channel.
So when we say AI lifeguards, we're
referring to
cameras that use deep learning and
computer vision.
And so these systems are trained with
tens of thousands of images for it to
understand what a dangerous situation
would look like
so that when it does see a dangerous
situation it can alert the lifeguards.
And considering that drowning is the
third deadliest accident
worldwide according to the World Health
Organization,
then it's very important to use every
measure we can to help prevent it.
So what are AI lifeguards used for? So
they're used to flag
any potential dangerous situation; so
whether that's a rip current,
an unattended child, or someone who is
drowning.
So what it does is it looks at
conditions on the beach, so
it looks at the weather conditions, it
looks at rip currents and waves,
it looks at how crowded a beach is and
it uses all of this information
to alert the lifeguards in case
something dangerous does pop up. So
whereas before we would see
our lifeguards on the beach walking up
and down the shore patrolling the area,
if we do start implementing AI
lifeguards at most beaches
then we may get used to seeing the
lifeguards sitting in the watchtower
behind
a computer or maybe in some cases it may
be
a software or an app that they can use
on their phone so that they'd be able to
do both, they could
you know manually patrol the area but
also get alerts from the AI system.
And so how it works is the AI system
actually detects what's going on and
then it sets out a warning signal
so that the lifeguard can understand
which part of the beach it's in and also
what the situation is so they're
prepared to go in.
So will AI replace lifeguards? This is
one of the situations where AI can
actually be really useful in augmenting
human work, so augmenting the work of
human lifeguards.
Because it can add an additional layer
of support to them,
it can help them see further than the
human eye, and it can
allow them to see from different angles
and different vantage points that may be
difficult to do when they're just
patrolling
the beach up and down the shore. But like
with most technology,
the risk is that some lifeguards may
start depending too much and relying
too much on the technology.
This is especially dangerous for new
lifeguards, so ones that are trained with
the AI system in mind
because they may not have or they may it
may weaken
that intuitive response that is needed,
that gut response,
and the quick reaction that comes with
experience. And this is important because
technology can fail and systems may fail
so we need to have that gut reaction
to assess the situation and immediately
respond to it.
So we can see how this can be useful for
crowded summer holidays, crowded summer
weekends,
but can we also use it year-round? Now, I
think this is very important because
most beaches don't hire a lifeguard year-round and they don't hire lifeguards
around the clock.
And so this can be useful because the
cameras can still, you know, be placed
and the information can then be sent to
a center perhaps.
And if they detect some sort of
dangerous situation
of a riptide or somebody drowning then
they can use drones in that area,
maybe drones that are parked at the
beach, to provide assistance
to somebody who may be caught in a
riptide or drowning.
Okay so, has this been used before? And is
it easy to implement?
Some countries such as Australia, Sweden,
and Israel have already started working
with it.
I think they're still in the testing
phases. And is it easy to implement?
Yes because most beaches already have
cameras so
at most we would need to install a few
more cameras and
embed it with the AI system.
Now one concern here is...I was
actually just speaking to the lifeguards
here at Manhattan Beach
and we were talking about how it could
be useful and how it can't.
And it was interesting that one of the
lifeguards did point out that when it
comes to communication it's best to have
a human lifeguard there, and especially for children. So when it
comes to
rescuing children who are drowning it's
a lot easier for them to
feel that connection with a human
because lifeguards really have that
ability to give them some sort of
confidence or you know this
calming feeling that someone's there and
is going to help them. So
listening to the human saying you know
"hold on to this," is
will be a lot easier than a drone being
dropped where the child may already be
in a frantic state and not know
how to react to that. Thank you so much
for joining me today at Manhattan Beach
to talk about AI lifeguards. I hope you
enjoyed it!
And if you did, please consider liking
and subscribing
to my channel! :)
 
