Google selects 16 APAC organizations for AI for the Planet accelerator

Google has announced the first cohort of its ‘Google DeepMind Accelerator: AI for the Planet’ for the Asia-Pacific region, selecting 16 organizations from approximately 680 applicants. The program, which began with a bootcamp in Singapore, provides participants with three months of mentorship from Google experts and access to advanced AI models, including AlphaEarth Foundations and Gemini.

The selected organizations are categorized into three focus areas: nature conservation and climate resilience, sustainable agriculture, and climate/carbon solutions. Notable participants include Japan’s Archeda, which focuses on using satellite data to create reliable natural carbon credits, and South Korea’s TelePIX, which is working to monitor mangrove changes globally. TelePIX aims to combine satellite imagery with geospatial AI to automate the detection of mangrove distribution, helping to address the loss of these critical blue carbon ecosystems.

Other participating entities include organizations from New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Australia, addressing challenges such as biodiversity monitoring, smallholder farmer support, and urban carbon optimization.