GISCafe Weekly Review : January 26, 2024

By Tim Klawa, Head of Product, Figure Eight Federal

Tim Klawa

Top 2024 Trend: Trustworthy Data Starts with Trustworthy AI – 2024 Brings Increased Demand for Transparency and Auditability of Data used in AI Development

In 2024, the defense and intelligence sectors are at the forefront of a major industry trend, prioritizing responsible and ethical artificial intelligence (AI). This paradigm shift reflects a growing operational need to ensure AI systems are not only advanced but also ethically sound and reliable. The focus on responsible AI underscores the importance of data scaffolding in the development of these technologies, particularly in high-stakes environments where AI decisions can have significant consequences.

The trend highlights a critical need for transparency and auditability in the data used to train AI models, ensuring that these systems can be trusted to perform accurately and ethically. This move toward responsible AI is driven by the understanding that the integrity and dependability of AI systems are as crucial as their technological sophistication, especially in scenarios where AI aids in critical decision-making processes. By emphasizing responsible AI development, the defense and intelligence sectors are acknowledging the complex interplay between technological advancement and ethical considerations, aiming to balance the two in a way that maximizes operational effectiveness while upholding ethical standards.

The year marks a significant evolution in AI initiatives, with a key trend being the pursuit of cross-vendor standardization for evaluating the quality of AI training data. This standardization is essential to ensure responsible AI development and to mitigate risks in data pipelines. Such an emphasis is crucial in maintaining the high value and effectiveness of government AI projects in defense and intelligence, propelling the nation’s competitive edge in this field. The defense and intelligence sectors are increasingly collaborating with AI developers and regulatory bodies to create a shared understanding and set of practices that prioritize ethical considerations in AI development. This collaborative approach aims to produce robust, reliable, and trustworthy AI systems that can be effectively deployed in sensitive and critical areas.

By Sandro Batista, Co-founder, Mapify

Sandro Batista

In 2024, the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and Location Intelligence industry are poised to undergo transformative changes, leveraging technology advancements to enhance various sectors and processes. As we look towards the future, several key trends and developments are expected to shape the landscape of GIS and Location Intelligence.

Integrations with Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Integrations with Machine Learning (ML):

Enhanced Predictive Analytics:

By Mark Safran, Vice President, Senior Program Manager, Dewberry

Mark Safran

Geospatial Mayhem

I wake up in a sweat at two in the morning from a chaotic dream of hyperspectral pixels and pulses of light and synthetic aperture radar rays bombarding the earth like an alien space invasion.

Point clouds swirl through hydrographic canyons, scouring geomorphon rasters out of the way, leaving nothing behind but hydro-flattened rivers and silt choked layers of flood modeling clay.

That’s when things change from bad to worse.

I find myself stuck waist deep in data bricks, my arms held down by writhing, scaly python scrips, and coming at me from all sides, emerging like ghosts from an azure cloud, Storms an army of agents from the halls of AI, carrying RAG fitted LLMs and GeoAPIs.

Definitions: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Large Language Models (LLM), Application Programming Interface (API), GeoAPI: Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)’s set of programming interfaces for geospatial applications

By Dave Horner, CEO, Getmapping

Dave Horner

Key Geospatial Trends for 2024

2024 is set to be another exciting year for the geospatial industry as the value of the data, services and solutions it delivers continues to grow, providing insight and intelligence and helping improve decision making across the globe.

So, what are the key geospatial trends to look out for in 2024?

Artificial Intelligence becoming mainstream: 2023 was the year that generative AI moved into the mainstream and hit the headlines with the widespread adoption of ChatGPT. While we have been discussing AI for several years now, and AI has been used in some form or other by organisations for some time, it was still considered an emerging technology by most people.

But ChatGPT changed all that, and it is time to accept that AI is now an integral part of our everyday lives, and that its application and usage will continue to grow in the future.

This idea is equally true for the geospatial industry, where we are starting to see AI being used much more widely. From content providers and aggregators to the rapidly expanding user base in both commercial and public sector spaces, organisations will be looking at how they can more effectively leverage AI

Article Source: ASTERRA

Consumer behavior and market trends will evolve in 2024 as the world becomes less tolerant of preventable infrastructure catastrophes and wasted resources related to infrastructure. ASTERRA, Earth observation pioneers, provide infrastructure intelligence using satellites, artificial intelligence (AI), and their patented algorithm, have seen an upward trend in inquiries and a record number of new, substantial contracts across the globe. These consumer trends are pro-active and are not reacting to a disaster related to catastrophic failure of infrastructure. Rather, they are a part of mindful infrastructure planning and maintenance for utilities and other infrastructure organizations.

Consumer trends in 2024 will be to seek out smart methods for infrastructure monitoring and water leak detection such as EarthWorks, Recover, and MasterPlan, all by ASTERRA. ASTERRA provides a number of industries with intelligence and insights from beneath the surface of their largest installations. Without breaking ground, ASTERRA uses patented algorithms and artificial intelligence to detect leaks, assess pipes, and locate moisture near major infrastructure installations. Some of the industry markets trending up in the use of ASTERRA solutions include monitoring water reservoirs, dams, levees, roadways, rail, and mines. All these include vast areas, which are efficiently monitored by the SAR radar of satellites and the solutions which locate water beneath the surface of the earth to determine infiltration and ! weakness of infrastructure.

By Nikolaas Steenbergen, CEO and Founder, 030Solutions

Nikolaas Steenbergen

The evolution of sensor technologies such as lidar, cameras, and drones has been pivotal for the GIS industry. These technologies have become more sophisticated yet increasingly affordable and accessible in the recent years. Lidar sensors now offer unprecedented accuracy in 3D mapping, while enhanced camera technologies provide finer details and higher resolution imagery. Drones, on their part, have become more efficient and cost-effective, enabling extensive aerial data collection even in previously inaccessible areas outside, even hand held and backpack mounted lidar and image systems are available.

With the influx of data from these advanced sensors, the GIS industry faces a significant challenge: the need for efficient data processing. The amount of data needs to be reduced in such a way to be able to derive actionable information to be useful. Manual labeling and analysis of this data are not only time-consuming but also expensive. This bottleneck necessitates a shift towards automated solutions, where AI plays a crucial role to be fast and scalable.

By Ray Weaver, CMO, Pointr

Ray Weaver

2023 was unquestionably the year that AI went from being the stuff of science fiction to reality in the public consciousness. It now impacts a huge range of everyday tasks, and of course the GIS industry is no exception.

In my opinion, the most clear industry trend we’ll see in 2024 is a greater synergy between mapping and AI. The GIS tools we have at our disposal today are more detailed and powerful than ever before, but the actual process of creating any sort of map has remained relatively static for many years now – it’s laborious, time-consuming, and prone to human error.

AI, however, presents us with an opportunity to produce maps at scale without requiring strict human oversight at every stage. By automating certain tasks while creating maps – such as identifying which features from the original source (such as a CAD file) need to be included and which can be excluded – and then applying these en masse, AI can save enormous amounts of time with little to no impact on the quality of the finished product. Furthermore, thanks to machine learning and human feedback, the more maps an AI-assisted tool is tasked with creating, the more accurate it will become over time, creating a virtuous cycle.