Randy Wright Comments on How the BEACON Emergency Alert System Can Be a Solution for Timely Weather Warnings
Randy Wright, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Division of Media Properties executive director, was featured in “Could AI be the Future of Emergency Alerts? Here’s Why Florida is Hoping to Launch It” posted on WPTV.com on Feb. 21.
The story focuses on findings from a months-long investigation of significant weaknesses in Florida’s emergency alert system. Three potential reasons contributed to early warning failure including system overload from competing simultaneous warnings, residents located outside the warning area, or the warning was received after the storm was in progress.
A new artificial intelligence (AI) emergency alert system called the Broadcast Emergency Alerts and Communications Operation Network or BEACON can be a solution for effective and timely weather warnings.
According to Wright, this new project, a collaboration with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, WUFT-FM, UFCJC and Futuri Media, uses AI to deliver emergency alerts directly to people’s phones or radios during a crisis.
“This is the best of what’s old with what’s new,” said Wright.
The system catalogs emergency alerts from local agencies and in less than a minute the information is converted to speech by AI and broadcast over radio and a mobile app, ensuring redundancy.
“Those announcements come directly into the BEACON system, where the text, as presented by the county, isn’t filtered,” Wright said. “It allows for government agencies at every single level, from hyper-local all the way to the federal government. It gives them access to the public instantaneously.”
BEACON has launched in the Gainesville market and expansion is underway to be complete before hurricane season starts in June. BEACON may soon be the future of emergency alerts in other states.
As Wright indicates, he is already receiving inquiries from emergency management officials in other hurricane-prone states, including Louisiana and Texas.
Posted: February 24, 2025
Category: AI at CJC News, College News
Tagged as: AIBEACON, Division of Media Properties, Randy Wright, WUFT-FM
