NASA partners with IBM to build AI for weather and climate

US space agency NASA has announced its partnership with tech major IBM to develop an AI foundation model which will be used for weather and climate. For this model, NASA and IBM will combine their knowledge and skills in the Earth science and AI fields, respectively. The companies have claimed that the upcoming AI model should offer “significant advantages over existing technology.” It is important to note that other AI models like GraphCast and Fourcastnet can generate weather forecasts more quickly than traditional meteorological models that are already available. In a statement to Engadget, IBM notes that the available tools are merely AI emulators and not foundation models.

Difference between foundational models and AI emulators
As the name suggests, foundational models are the base technologies that power generative AI apps. Meanwhile, AI emulators can make weather predictions based on sets of training data.