Google DeepMind has introduced a new artificial intelligence tool, claiming it possesses unmatched skill and speed to devise 15-day weather forecasts. In their latest report in the Nature Journal, published on Wednesday, the London-based company claimed its new model could outperform best forecasts in the world meant to track deadly storms and save lives.
Ilan Price, the lead author of the new study and a senior research scientist at DeepMind, said their new AI agent, 'GenCast', was much faster than the traditional methods. “And it's more accurate,” he claimed.
The team discovered that GenCast ran circles around the company's earlier AI weather program that debuted in late 2023, featuring a reliable 10-day forecast.
"I'm a little bit reluctant to say it, but it's like we've made decades' worth of improvements in one year. We're seeing really, really rapid progress," said Rémi Lam, the lead scientist on the other project and was also among one of the dozen co-authors on the new study.
The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is often considered the global leader in atmospheric prediction. Its projections exceed all others in accuracy during regular comparative tests.
The new AI program by DeepMind was tested against the centre's Ensemble Prediction System, which is utilised by 35 countries in the world to produce weather forecasts.
During the study, the team compared how the 15-day forecasts of both systems performed while making predictions about a designated set of 1,320 global wind speeds, temperatures and other atmospheric features.
The latest report claimed the new agent outperformed the centre's forecasts 97.2% of the time. This achievement, according to the authors, “helps open the next chapter in operational weather forecasting.”
"It's a big deal... It's an important step forward," The New York Times quoted Kerry Emanuel, a professor emeritus of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as saying.
Dr Emanuel and six other experts had in 2019 argued that further advancing the development of reliable forecasts from 10 days to the length of 15 days would have “enormous socioeconomic benefits” as it can help people avoid the worst effects of extreme weather.
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