Artificial intelligence already has shown potential to write blogs, diagnose medical ailments and analyze customer feedback.

Now you can add monitoring Arizona wildfires to the list.

Salt River Project is in the process of installing AI-enabled cameras that can detect smoke in remote areas, enhancing the company’s ability to safeguard transmission towers and limit damage to property and wilderness regions.

The systems alert human staffers who determine whether a blaze is real, as opposed to fog or clouds, then provide feedback to the software to help it better recognize fires in the future.

“It’s like training a dog,” said Floyd Hardin, SRPs fire management officer. “You’re telling it, ‘Yes, you correctly identified smoke,’ or not.”

Spotting smoke up to 10 miles away

SRP hasn’t used cameras on transmission towers before. The Tempe-based electric and water utility has installed six solar-powered cameras with AI-learning software on transmission towers in the Tonto National Forest and soon will add six more in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, both east of Phoenix.

Using AI to spot potential blazes already has been happening in some European nations and in other U.S. states, including California, but this is the first such use on transmission towers in forested areas of Arizona, Hardin said.

The cameras with AI software typically are mounted 30 to 50 feet high, giving them the ability to look over tree canopies, if necessary. Each camera has a 100-degree field of vision, so SRP is installing four per tower in places where it wants a 360-degree view. The cameras can spot smoke up to 10 miles away.

“This is another tool” to spot fires or limit damage, Hardin said, along with installing fire-resistant mesh around tower bases and clear-cutting trees and brush around towers and in corridors below transmission lines.

The first AI-detecting SmokeD cameras were installed in recent weeks and have been "practicing" on some prescribed or precautionary burns in a few locations. The cameras also can detect damage to towers such as from gunshots or storms.

On the job, day and night

While smoke and fire can be detected in other ways, such as by satellite, the cameras provide updated feeds every 10 minutes, allowing for faster detection, Hardin said. They also can detect infrared images, allowing for night use.

Hardin said he’s not expecting an especially busy wildfire season this summer, but he added that a lot will depend on the timing and intensity of monsoon rains.

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SRP has spent about $150,000 for its AI-enabled cameras for this pilot program, with hopes of installing more. The utility is applying for a federal grant that, if received, would partly fund the purchase of 28 to 35 other AI-enabled cameras to be installed in different locations around the state.

SRP plans to share fire alerts with officials at the U.S. Forest Service, the state, fellow power utility Arizona Public Service and others.

While human employees evaluate all of the alerts received, the systems don’t replace eyes on the ground because there typically aren’t any.

“We don’t have people sitting out there, managing these sites,” Hardin said. “But these (systems) can be out there, always.”

Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SRP mounts AI-enabled cameras in Arizona forests to help spot wildfires