Google is taking another step into the future with its new GenCast artificial intelligence model. The Mountain View firm now claims to be able to predict weather conditions with unprecedented accuracy over two weeks in record time.
Google overtakes the European Weather Forecast Center model.
Trained with some weather data collected since 1979, namely temperature, wind speed and atmospheric pressure, GenCast can generate a fortnightly forecast in just eight minutes. Currently it takes several hours for a single task. If the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which produces forecasts for 35 countries, is a global benchmark, Google explains that GenCast is more than 97 percent reliable. In fact, both models were tested on 1,320 climate disasters in 2019. The web giant’s AI would have been far more accurate than the European-centric tools. According to Google, GenCast would have been significantly more accurate at predicting scorching temperatures, extreme cold and strong winds.
While Google shouldn’t monopolize weather forecasts, the development is considered significant because it represents the first step in the integration of AI into the profession.
