Google says AI weather model masters 15-day forecast [Video]

A new artificial intelligence-based weather model can deliver 15-day forecasts with unrivaled accuracy and speed, a Google lab said, with potentially life-saving applications as climate change ramps up.

GenCast, invented by London-based AI research laboratory Google DeepMind, “showed better forecasting skill” than the current world-leading model, the company said Wednesday.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) produces predictions for 35 countries and is considered the global benchmark for meteorological accuracy.

But DeepMind said GenCast surpassed the precision of the center’s forecasts in more than 97 percent of the 1,320 real-world scenarios from 2019 which they were both tested on.

Details of its findings were published in Nature, a leading science journal.

ECMWF chief Florence Rabier told AFP the project was a “first step” towards integrating AI in weather forecasting but that “it is indeed a leap forward.”

At this stage it can be used to supplement their current …