🙄
NPR: Testing the new generation of AI-enabled fire-extinguishing drones
0 Boosts
0 Likes
@MLE_online Image recognition and probably thermal recognition... it's really ML.
@ai6yr @MLE_online Yeah. I REALLY wish they would stop calling every computer thing AI.
***if you want to fix wildfire issues in Colorado, you need to fund your fire departments, instead.
@ai6yr What if we raise the temperature of the Earth by two degrees centigrade instead?
@ai6yr and pay wildlands firefighters, literally one of the most dangerous jobs in existence, a living wage as they make much less than city firefighters
not this $35k a year to risk brutal immediate death or painful slow cancer related death
Denver 7 (ABC): Voters appear to reject measure for Arvada Fire funding (Nov 7, 2026)
"...ARVADA, Colo. — According to the 2026 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment, released in August by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), two-thirds of Colorado fire departments can't fund their full operations, and nearly 80% can't afford the equipment and staffing they say they need...."
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/voters-appear-to-reject-measure-for-arvada-fire-funding
@ai6yr we were able to pass funding increases for the West Metro Fire District, which serves a swath of metro/rural interface areas in Jefferson County. Should bring in up to $32M next year for funding equipment and personnel including wildfire response. It’s a sales tax (0.75%); voters have refused to allow mill levy increases for funding for years now.
@ai6yr I guess why their houses burn down they'll reconsider what they did
@ai6yr can’t speak for the Arvada one specifically, but there was a statewide measure that will help with wildfire prevention and conservation (prop 137), good idea but due to Colorado’s weird tax rules it could pull money out before other things are funded in lean years.
@ai6yr For Boulder, they like to bundle fire services, rec center maintenance, and increased police funding. There’s something for everyone to like, but there’s probably also something for everyone to be against. They also went A LOT over budget on the last fire station replacement (looks really nice tho).
@bolderbekah I keep forgetting the name of that "no new taxes" measure that seems to have damaged fire departments in Colorado... From the 90's?!?
@ai6yr @bolderbekah Is it the TABOR?
(sets up soapbox)
AI DRONE BOONDOGGLES do not fix systemic funding issues with your funding for wildfire prevention and response.
(steps off soapbox)
Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain: Pueblo voters reject fire dept. tax, approve zoo and library measures
Pueblo Chieftain
Updated Nov. 5, 2026, 4:10 p.m. MT
A city ballot measure proposed by Mayor Heather Graham seeking to raise sales taxes to fund the Pueblo Fire Department and public safety technology was resoundingly shot down by voters on Election Day.
@photoncollector People in Colorado are renoun for their rejection of funding for fire departments
@ai6yr
Then they are obviously Idiots.
Arthur Brown - Fire 🔥 (1968)
YouTube
@ai6yr Some of our researchers are doing this same kind of work. It's not like they're using chatgpt in the drones, at least not ours. It's some kind of machine learning