By: Sammy Wang

Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) accurately predict weather? Researchers say yes.

On September 16, 2023, research scientist, Remi Lam, was surprised when Google’s DeepMind AI software, named GraphCast, accurately predicted where Hurricane Lee, would land on that day. The predictions for the category 5 hurricane came about 10 days before it hit.’

DeepMind is an artificial intelligence company with the purpose of expanding the use of “AI systems safely and responsibly.” Recently, the company was able to use AI to solve a silver-medal International Mathematical Olympiad problem.

Lam and Peter Battalia, a research director at DeepMind, say that with certain adjustments to GraphCast, it can achieve even better results with certain weather conditions.

But how does AI generate their predictions? According to Climavision, a company that focuses on using AI for their weather forecasting, “ AI algorithms can integrate and interpret this vast amount of data, identifying patterns and correlations that humans might overlook.”

”By integrating different data sources, AI improves the overall accuracy of weather models,” they wrote. “Leveraging AI’s ability to process and analyze vast amounts of data to increase our use of unique observational data.

But even with the help of AI, people shouldn’t rely on their predictions too much. The weather can still be unpredictable, with examples like California’s summer rains in July.

Although it’s great to use new technologies for their purposes, we shouldn’t reply on them too much.

Sources:
https://www.wired.com/story/google-deepmind-ai-weather-forecast/
https://deepmind.google
https://climavision.com/blog/ai-and-weather-data-revolutionizing-accurate-forecasting/#:~:text=AI%20algorithms%20can%20integrate%20and,overall%20accuracy%20of%20weather%20models.