AI system
- System
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Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) system
- Model
-
Not assessed
- Release
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Not assessed
- Application developer
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Google - Role
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Not assessed
- Configuration
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Not assessed
- Inputs and outputs
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Not assessed
- Autonomy
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Not assessed
- Workflow
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Dense network of online Android phones (about 66,000 used for characterization) around an offshore epicentre. On-phone trigger on P-wave acceleration and server-side magnitude estimation updated over 12 s. Two-tier alerting (Be Aware, Take Action) delivered through the operating system. A population with high earthquake awareness after the 2023 Kahramanmaraş disaster, per the authors.
- Human oversight
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Not assessed
- Relation to AI
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The system itself generated the detection and the alerts. A few hundred phones triggered on the P wave. The system detected the event 5.31 s after origin and issued alerts within 0.43 s. Magnitude estimates were updated over the next 12 s. All performance figures and user-response data come from Google-authored papers (Mousavi et al. 2026; Allen et al. 2025). That is said plainly here. The only independent cited source, the BBC, concerns the 2023 underestimation. The read papers describe the detection as an on-phone algorithm that analyzes acceleration time series for sudden changes. They do not use the terms machine learning or artificial intelligence. Whether the system uses AI is not established by the sources.
- AI contribution
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Android Earthquake Alerts detected the earthquake from phone accelerometers and issued warnings. The authors report detection 5.31 seconds after the earthquake began and an alert within a further 0.43 seconds.
Benefits
- Outcome identifiers
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Not assessed
- Benefit
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alerted 16 million+ users (median 56 s warning for weak shaking)
- Category
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Increased Product Safety
- Status
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Not assessed
- Beneficiary groups
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Beneficiaries
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Not assessed
- Reach
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Not assessed
- Distribution and access
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Not assessed
- Duration
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Not assessed
- Expected?
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Yes
- Costs and harms
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Not assessed
Measurement
- Studies
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Not assessed
- Study design
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Not assessed
- Measurement
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Not assessed
- Setting and sample
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Not assessed
- Measures
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alerted 16 million+ users (median 56 s warning for weak shaking)
- Comparison
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local seismic networks (AFAD stations)
- Results
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Result: AEA detected the event 5.31 seconds after its initiation, alerting over 16 million users.
- Additional value from AI
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Not assessed
- Limitations
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Google-authored papers supply the performance figures and user responses. The sources describe an algorithm that detects changes in acceleration but do not establish that it uses machine learning. The independent BBC report concerns a different earthquake.
- Denominators
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Not assessed
- Materials for replication
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Not assessed
Money
- Kind of value
-
Not assessed
- Amount
-
Not assessed
- Currency and prices
-
Not assessed
- Period and unit
-
Not assessed
- Realization
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Not assessed
- Recipients and payers
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Not assessed
- Gross or net
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Not assessed
- Included costs
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Method
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Not assessed
- Return and payback
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Not assessed
People and places
- Participants
-
Developer:
Google. Operator: Google (alerts delivered directly to Android users; launched in Türkiye in June 2021). - Jurisdictions
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Benefit: Sea of Marmara / Istanbul region, Türkiye (alerts also in
Greece, Romania and 
Bulgaria). Developer: 
United States. Operator: United States. - Ownership and control
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Not assessed
- Dependencies
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Not assessed
- Cross-border connections
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Not assessed
- Geopolitical implications
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Not assessed
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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Enough stationary, charging phones near the epicentre to trigger early. Magnitude estimates that do not saturate below the true magnitude. This failed here at Mw 6.04 and failed badly in 2023. Alerts that outrun S-wave arrival at the populated distance. Users who recognize and act on the alert.
- Replication attempts
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2 follow-up entries. Benefit did not recur: 1. Benefit recurred: 1.
- Later findings
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16 September 2025. Google reports the system still operating in Türkiye after the event, with more than 116 million alerts issued for 203 detected events since June 2021 as of 16 September 2025.
- Availability
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Not assessed
- Institutional decision
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Not assessed
- Grounds
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Not assessed
- Action and result
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Not assessed
- Success criterion
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Not assessed
Evidence
- Source numbers
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AIBD-0349-source-0001–0008
- Citations
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Numbered references below.
- Language
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Not assessed
- Source relationships
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Developer, Independent
- Original evidence
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Not assessed
- Access and versions
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Not assessed
- Supported findings
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Not assessed
- Evidence links
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Not assessed
- Evidence strength
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Not assessed
- Missing evidence
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Not assessed
Grades
- Assessed benefits
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Depth
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People: 1. Organizations: Not assessed. Society: 2.
- Reasons
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People: Google's feedback data say recipients were likely to drop, cover and hold on or warn others. No individual injury avoided is documented. The data are vendor-collected. Organizations: No organization's decision or operation is documented as changed by the alerts. Society: More than 16 million users were alerted with a median 56 s warning for weak shaking. “Take Action” alerts did not cover inland MMI V areas in time. No reduction in injuries is demonstrated. Evidence is vendor-authored.
- Observed or intended
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Not assessed
- Rubric
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Not assessed
- Assessor and date
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Not assessed
- Alternative assessments
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Not assessed
- Fill
-
Independently reported
Entry details
- Kind
-
Not assessed
- Related entries
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Not assessed
- Field
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Earthquake early warning / public safety. Consumer operating-system safety feature.
- Purpose
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Crowd-sourced earthquake detection and early warning delivered to Android phones in countries without dense seismic networks. The alerts were the intended use.
- Dates
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Date basis unassessed: 2025 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.
- Stage
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Not assessed
- Version
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SHA-256: 5d5b66e01eda…
References
- Other identifiers
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Not assessed
- Category mappings
-
Not assessed
- Brief
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Not assessed
- Revisions
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5 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.
Sources
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Mousavi, S. M., Robertson, P., Allen, R. M., Barski, A., Bosch, R., Thiruverahan, N., Cho, Y., Gadh, T., Malkos, S., Spooner, B., Wimpey, G., Shi, E., Stogaitis, M. (2026). Performance and user response of android's smartphone-based alerts in the 2025 Marmara Ereğlisi earthquake. Nature Communications, 11 August 2026. doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76413-7. Authors affiliated with Google LLC and Google Germany GmbH.
AEA detected the event 5.31 seconds after its initiation, alerting over 16 million users.
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Mousavi, S. M. et al. (2026). Same article, abstract, warning times.
Warning times for weak shaking (MMI III) reached up to 150 seconds, with a median of 56 seconds.
An on-phone detection algorithm analyzes acceleration time series for sudden changes indicative of P- or S-wave arrivals.
Consequently, inland populations who experienced moderate ground motions (MMI V) did not receive a “Take Action” alert before the arrival of the stronger shaking.
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Allen, R. M., Barski, A., Berman, M., Bosch, R., Cho, Y., Jiang, X. S., Lee, Y. L., Malkos, S., Mousavi, S. M., Robertson, P., Spooner, B., Stogaitis, M., Thiruverahan, N., Wimpey, G. (2025). Global earthquake detection and warning using Android phones. Science, 17 July 2025. doi:10.1126/science.ads4779 (Google-authored).
Alerts were delivered in 98 countries for earthquakes with M ≥4.5, corresponding to ~60 events and 18 million alerts per month.
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
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News report Independent author
Clayton, J., Foster, A., Derico, B. (2025). Google failed to warn 10 million of Turkey earthquake severity. BBC News, 27 July 2025.
Instead, only 469 "Take Action" warnings were sent out for the first 7.8 magnitude quake.
For the first earthquake, the system estimated the shaking at between 4.5 and 4.9 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS) when it was actually a 7.8.