While things like generating podcasts and videos are nice, we've long hoped our newfound grasp of artificial intelligence might spur on some more genuinely useful improvements that mankind can benefit from.
Thankfully, we've had examples of this with the detection of 160,000 new viruses, but a new boast from Google might make a difference for just about everyone.
The tech giant's DeepMind division focused on pushing the limits of AI development, has released a blog post describing how its new GenCast model can predict weather and extreme conditions more accurately than leading tools.
In fact, it can deliver "faster, more accurate forecasts up to 15 days ahead", which might mean your local weather presenter's days might be numbered.
Google can predict the weather more than two weeks in advance
Today in @Nature, we’re presenting GenCast: our new AI weather model which gives us the probabilities of different weather conditions up to 15 days ahead with state-of-the-art accuracy. ☁️⚡Here’s how the technology works. 🧵https://t.co/PWCNWbQnlU pic.twitter.com/6DTrmn64JqDecember 4, 2024
The current leader in weather forecasting, ENS, is maintained by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF - they really need better branding), but in testing, Google's new GenCast model performed up to 20% faster.
It's not expected to replace current weather forecasting technology, but could supplement it in the near future, but it's perhaps most useful in more extreme conditions.
According to Google, it could help anticipate hazards like heatwaves and cold blasts, and it beat ENS when it came to predicting the paths of hurricanes and cyclones.
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