10 FEBRUARY 6-12, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | PARK HILL SUPERMARKET High Quality! Huge Variety! Wholesale Prices! Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat & seafood 3770 E 40TH AVE. DENVER, CO 80205 Tel: 303-823-3088 EVERY DAY 9AM-7PM owners — that could have cameras on their property or even on their homes — how are they being protected?” CAR says that requirements to pixelate pictures of homes should be included in state law rather than trusting internal company policies of contractors with which the state partners. The group is also asking that people whose homes could be in view of cameras be alerted, and that a list of who can, and has, looked at the images produced by the cameras is publicly available. Given that cameras are already being used in the state, those amendments are all the more important, Tanner says. “I wouldn’t put my name on something if I had those concerns,” Daugherty says, cit- ing a bill she sponsored last year to protect Coloradans’ biometric data as an example of her commitment to privacy protection. “With AI, we need to know what it’s being used for and where it’s going, but we also need to adapt and use the technology to our betterment. That’s what this does.” Bill sponsors and CAR are discussing possible amendments, according to Tanner. Weinberg, who serves on the Artifi cial Intelligence Impact Task Force designed to examine AI as an emerging fi eld, says experts on the topic have recommended AI as way to combat wildfi res. After seeing the damage of the Marshall fi re fi rsthand, the state rep out of Larimer County says lawmakers would be “foolish” to ignore that recommendation. Weinberg sponsored another bill that would fund further research into AI tech- nology to fi ght wildfi res. Senate Bill 25-022 would have appropriated $7.6 million to the Division of Fire Prevention and Con- trol to subsidize a Lockheed Martin pilot program that examines AI uses for wildfi re prevention. However, the bill was postponed indefi nitely by the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee on January 29. Because of the state budget crunch, FIRE fund dollars for the AI camera bill will come from the state-owned real property fund in the Department of Personnel and Adminis- tration, which Daugherty says currently goes unused. The funding is only appropriated for three years, so lawmakers can assess how effective the technology is down the road. According to Daugherty, the state has al- located $70 million from the TABOR reserve since 2018 for fi re response efforts, so fi nding another means of funding is part of the goal. “Early detection is so incredibly important, because right now we’re relying on hikers or people driving by, or people seeing smoke off in a distance,” she says. “We’re hoping that by catching it early, we can put it out quicker and limit the people who are going to be affected by wildfi res.” Balentine says Aspen Fire helped train Pano’s AI formula to understand Colorado’s landscape so that future departments would have a leg up if they used the same company. For example, the cameras fi rst detected whirl- winds of lake and stream water as fi re smoke, but the system has since learned to ignore those false positives. Even leaves changing colors in the fall freaked the cameras out at fi rst, he adds. After a few years of refi nement, however, Aspen Fire has an accurate feel of what’s going on after camera notifi cations. Fire departments don’t have enough re- sources to tame every fi re right when it starts, Balentine notes, but the cameras help him allocate more effectively. If there’s a blip that looks small, the department can send one truck to check things out without manning entire crews. On the fl ip side, if someone reports smoke and Aspen Fire sends one truck to investigate without looking at the cameras, the blaze could be out of control before the scout truck arrives. Aspen Fire can also monitor controlled burns with the cameras, freeing up more fi refi ghters for unexpected calls. Balentine is speaking with insurance agencies regularly, he says, and believes that as the technology becomes more proven and widespread, companies will consider the presence of AI cameras as a factor in property insurance policies. “Getting information in the early stages, quite frankly, is the only hope we have of beating this beast,” he says. “We have proven it does work.” Balentine hopes to attend SB 011’s fi rst hearing, scheduled in the Senate Transporta- tion & Energy Committee this week. Email the author at [email protected]. Boulder County resident Kerry Matre said that she saw a thirty-foot wall of fl ames coming toward her house in Stone Canyon when she evacuated on July 30, 2024. News continued from page 8 COURTESY OF KERRY MATRE
