In this episode, I caught up with James Doherty and Donal Hill, co-founders of Planetixx (formerly Plastic-i), a company using satellite imagery and AI to monitor ocean debris. Their platform not only detects plastic and other debris, but also predicts its origins and trajectory, enabling more effective interventions. Beyond plastic, they’ve expanded into monitoring algal blooms, a growing environmental concern.
The conversation covers the technical and practical challenges of building AI models that work at a global scale, as well as their newly launched platform. A live demo of the platform is available as a separate video, linked below
Bio: Dr. James Doherty is CEO and Co-Founder of Earthshot-nominated enterprise Planetixx, where he drives environmental innovation in tackling marine plastic pollution and promoting ocean health. His unique expertise spans astronomy, data science, and law, combining scientific rigour with legal acumen. James holds a PhD in Astronomy, law degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and is a Science to Data Science (S2DS) Fellow. His professional background includes practising as a commercial lawyer at Eversheds Sutherland before applying his diverse skill set to environmental entrepreneurship.
Bio: Dr. Donal Hill is Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of Planetixx, where he leads technology development initiatives in satellite data and artificial intelligence applications. His expertise spans particle physics, data science, and AI mplementation across research and industry. Donal holds a PhD in Particle Physics from the University of Oxford and spent ten years at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. His distinguished career includes serving as a Marie Curie Fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and holding senior data scientist positions at UEFA and the Swiss Data Science Center, where he facilitates AI adoption for industry partners.
Hi Robin, just started on substack to write AI focus writing, do review https://deeprightai.substack.com/?utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web my writing, and suggest more improvements?
Robin: Every time you send me your publication I think of my little procedure to characterize hurricanes and tornadoes (and quite possibly rotation and convectivity in a range of other situations. The big money is on AI which has never bragged that it is science. The real story is that rotation is caused by convectivity. Here is a ref. to a publication that you might want to peruse. Of course it has no connection to non-convective processes. Bryan
1. Rotation, Convectivity and Hurricane State Determined by Entropic Forces: Relevance to AI Methodology
2. Connectivity and Rotation of Entropicly Defined Clusters as a Measure of Hurricane and Tornado State
Bryan Kerman
( 2) Published in International Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (Volume 9, Issue 1)
21 March 2025